SECOND  YEAR 


UNIVERSITY  OF  HUMS  LIBRARY 

I  31  1918 

PART  IV 


CHHSTM  LEADERS 


-INTEEMEDIAIE- 

\ 


-TEXT  BOOK* 


Prepared  by 


SOPHIA  LYON  FAHS 


Edited  by 

john  t.  McFarland,  d.d. 


NOTE 


At  the  beginning  of  the  course  of  lessons  for  this  year, 
we  studied  Jesus  as  the  Leader  of  men.  From  those  lessons 
we  learned  the  secret  of  the  power  that  Jesus  exercised 
over  the  followers  who  lived  in  his  own  day.  In  the  lessons 
that  followed,  we  saw  that  the  men  who  chose  Jesus  as  their 
Master  and  Lord  had  a  new  and  inspiring  force  in  their 
lives.  This  force  was  the  presence  of  Christ  in  their  hearts. 

To-day,  as  it  has  been  throughout  all  the  centuries,  men 
look  upon  Jesus  as  their  Leader.  His  followers  have  gone 
into  every  nation  of  the  earth,  inspired  by  the  power  that 
he  gave  to  their  lives.  Wherever  they  have  told  of  him, 
men  have  chosen  to  follow  him  and  to  give  him  the  supreme 
place  in  their  lives. 

For  the  next  few  months  we  are  to  study  the  life  of  a 
modern  follower  of  Jesus.  There  are  many  other  followers 
who  could  have  been  chosen,  but  before  we  have  studied 
many  lessons  we  shall  feel  that  it  was  right  to  select  him 
from  all  the  others. 

We  have  not  spent  as  much  as  three  months  upon  any 
one  of  the  characters  previously  studied,  and  we  are  not  doing 
so  now  because  Alexander  Mackay  is  to  be  thought  of  as 
greater  than  the  rest.  It  is  that  we  may  become  really 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  a  typical  hero  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  We  want  Alexander  Mackay  to  be  to  us  a  real 
man  whom  we  ourselves  have  watched  at  his  work;  we  want 
to  feel  with  him  in  his  ambitions;  and  to  sympathize  with 
him  when  he  is  hard  pressed;  in  a  word,  at  the  end  of  the 
quarter  it  is  essential,  not  that  we  shall  know  what  other 
people  have  said  about  Alexander  Mackay,  but  that  we  shall 
feel  that  we  know  him  and  can  give  our  own  independent 
estimate  of  his  character.  Whatever  of  real  spiritual  help¬ 
fulness  may  come  through  this  study  will  come  through 
wThat  we  feel  rather  than  through  what  the  teacher  feels  for 
us.  Studied  in  this  spirit  the  life  of  Alexander  Mackay  may 
become  a  real  inspiration  to  each  of  us  to  be  a  “sturdy 
Christian,”  as  were  the  apostles  of  the  New  Testament  times. 


Intermediate  Text  Book 

Second  Year — Part  IV 

Christian  Leaders 

V.  Alexander  Mackay — A  Modern  Christian 

Leader 


Prepared  by 

SOPHIA  LYON  PAHS 


The  Berean 

Graded  Sunday  School  Lessons 
International  Course 

Edited  by  John  T.  McFarland,  D.D. 

JENNINGS  &  GRAHAM,  220  FOURTH  AVENUE,  W.,  CINCINNATI 
EATON  &  MAINS,  ::  ::  ::  150  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

40.  A  Newspaper  Man’s  Interviews  with  a  Black  King .  195 

41.  What  Happened  After  the  News  Was  Read .  200 

42.  Jungle  Roads,  Ox-Carts,  and  Fly  Bites .  205 

43.  The  King  Has  a  Chance  to  Keep  His  Promise .  210 

44.  White  Men  and  Black  Men  Become  Acquainted .  214 

45.  The  King  and  the  Wizard .  219 

46.  The  Two-Faced  Mutesa  and  the  Mohammedans .  224 

47.  The  New  Teaching  Makes  New  Men .  223 

48.  Mackay’s  Queer  New  Name .  232 

49.  Three  Boy  Heroes  and  One  Boy  Tyrant .  237 

50.  Sturdy  Black  Christians  with  Courage .  242 

51.  The  White  Man  of  Work  Lays  Down  His  Tools .  248 

52.  Did  It  Pay? .  253 


Copyright,  1912,  by  Sophia  Lyon  Fahs 


194 


jc 


Ztstil 
S  I 


LESSOR  40 

A  NEWSPAPER  MAN ’S  INTERVIEWS  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 
Read  Mark  12:28-84;  Acts  1G:G-10 

•  One  November  day  in  1875  the  newsboys  of  London 
found  quick  sale  for  the  Daily  Telegraph.  A  seven-months- 
old  letter  from  that  newspaper’s  African  correspondent  was 
setting  the  city  astir.  Henry  M.  Stanley,  who  was  thought 
to  have  been  lost  in  Africa’s  jungles,  had  been  heard  from. 
Down  under  the  equator  he  had  been  exploring  a  lake  named 
for  Queen  Victoria. 

WTith  his  large  company  of  followers  he  had  begun  the 
voyage  northward  on  Victoria  Lake  toward  Uganda.  One 
clear  morning  they  spied  on  the  far  horizon  a  fleet  of  canoes 
approaching.  Aboard  were''  African  oarsmen,  better  dressed 
than  any  other  Negroes  they  had  seen  in  all  their  journey. 

The  black  sailors  hailed  the  white  captain  and,  when  they 
were  near  enough  to  talk  with  each  other,  they  told  him  of 
a  strange  dream  the  mother  of  their  king  had  dreamed  two 
nights  before.  She  thought  she  saw  on  the  lake  a  beautiful 
vessel  having  white  wings  like  a  bird.  On  board  was  a 
white  man  with  wonderful  large  eyes  and  long  black  hair. 
The  king,  on  hearing  the  dream,  had  sent  these  men  to  find 
the  white  man  and  to  invite  him  to  his  court.  Mr.  Stanley 
could  not  do  other  than  to  follow  his  new  guides  to  the 
northern  shore  of  the  lake,  where  lay  their  home  country, 
the  kingdom  of  Uganda. 

A  great  surprise  was  in  store  for  him  when  he  landed. 
On  the  beach  stood  two  thousand  people,  marshaled  in  two 
long  parallel  lines.  Noisy  salutes  from  numerous  guns,  the 
waving  of  bright-colored  flags,  the  beating  of  tom-toms, 
and  the  blaring  of  trumpets,  all  combined  to  express  their 
glad  welcome.  So  many  Africans,  all  neatly  clad  in  long 
white  robes,  with  their  chiefs  arrayed  in  rich  scarlet  gowns, 
made  a  spectacle  new  to  Mr.  Stanley.  On  his  way  to  Uganda 
he  had  passed  through  the  countries  of  twenty  or  more 

195 


196 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


African  tribes,  but  the  people  were  all  savages,  wearing 
little  or  nothing  one  could  call  clothes.  These  Waganda 
(for  that  is  the  name  of  the  people  of  Uganda)  seemed  to 
him  to  be  highly  civilized. 

When  the  day  came  for  the  white  man  to  visit  the  king’s 
court,  Mr.  Stanley  with  his  large  company,  marched  along 
a  broad,  well-built  road,  inclosed  by  a  neat  fence  of  elephant 
grass,  and  leading  to  the  top  of  a  hill,  where  stood  a  high, 
dome-shaped  grass  hut.  In  the  doorway  of  this  royal  palace 
stood  the  tall,  slender  figure  of  King  Mutesa.  His  rich,  red 
costume  with  gold  embroidery  was  very  becoming  to  his 
graceful,  broad-shouldered  figure  and  handsome  dark  face. 
Around  him  were  grouped  his  chiefs  or  earls,  who  ruled  his 
provinces,  his  prime  minister,  his  chief  judge,  his  commander- 
in-chief  for  the  large  army  of  black  soldiers,  and  his  grand 
admiral  for  the  navy  of  canoes.  To  the  white  man,  Mutesa 
seemed  like  some  great  Caesar  of  Africa. 

Mutesa  and  his  people  did  not  worship  idols,  for  had  one 
searched  throughout  the  whole  country  of  Uganda,  he  prob¬ 
ably  would  not  have  found  a  single  image.  He  would  have 
seen,  however,  here  and  there  under  the  shade  of  some  tree 
or  on  the  top  of  a  mountain,  little  huts,  where  the  Waganda 
went  to  sacrifice.  The  spirits  to  whom  they  sacrificed  were 
supposed  to  live  in  trees,  or  on  the  mountains,  or  on  the 
lake,  or  sometimes  even  in  persons;  and  the  Waganda 
thought  they  would  do  much  harm  unless  presents  were 
given  to  them.  Tied  to  one  of  the  little  sacred  huts  or  to 
a  tree  beside  it  might  be  seen  some  of  these  gifts  walking 
around — several  sheep  or  goats  or  cows.  Peeping  inside  the 
hut,  one  might  discover  also  a  bunch  of  bananas  or  several 
skin  bottles  filled  with  pombe,  which  is  a  Uganda  wine 
made  from  bananas.  The  ugly  old  man  or  woman  who 
is  guardian  of  the  prayer  hut  keeps  these  gifts  until  the  evil 
spirit  is  supposed  to  have  taken  all  he  wishes  to  eat;  then 
the  guardian  gives  himself  a  treat.  So  the  poor  Waganda 
used  to  pray,  not  of  course  because  they  loved  the  spirits, 
but  because  they  were  afraid  of  them. 

There  was  another  religion  also,  very  different  from  this 
heathen  spirit  worship,  about  which  Mutesa  had  heard  a 
good  deal.  For  about  fifty  years  Arab  merchants  had  been 


A  NEWSPAPER  MAN’S  INTERVIEWS 


197 


coming  into  Uganda  to  trade  calico,  wire,  beads,  and  various 
trinkets  for  native  ivory  and  slaves. 

“There  is  one  true  God,”  these  merchants  said,  “and  his 
greatest  prophet  is  Mohammed.”  To  Mutesa  the  stories 
they  told  of  Mohammed  seemed  far  more  wonderful  than 
the  foolish  tales  he  had  heard  of  the  evil  spirits  in  Uganda. 
He  besran  to  wear  the  Mohammedan  dress  and  turban,  he 
taught  his  chiefs  Mohammedan  customs,  and  he  kept  the 
Mohammedan  Sabbath.  Thus  Mr.  Stanley  found  Mutesa 
half  heathen  and  half  Mohammedan,  never  having  heard 
that  to  be  a  Christian  was  better  than  either. 

One  day  at  court  some  one  asked  Mr.  Stanley  to  tell  them 
of  the  white  man’s  God.  As  he  began  Mr.  Stanley  noticed 
that  the  king  and  courtiers  were  listening  more  intently 
than  ever  before.  On  other  days  Mr.  Stanley  continued  to 
talk  on  this  same  subject.  His  hearers  appeared  far  more 
interested  in  what  he  said  about  Jesus  than  in  any  of  the 
wonderful  things  he  had  told  about  civilized  people. 

When  after  some  months  it  became  known  that  Mr. 
Stanley  was  soon  to  leave  the  country,  some  one  suggested 
that  at  least  a  few  of  the  things  the  white  man  had  said 
should  be  written  down  so  that  they  would  not  be  forgotten. 
By  good  fortune  the  king’s  chief  drummer,  and  one  of  Mr. 
Stanley’s  boat  boys,  could  together  do  the  translating  and 
writing.  So,  on  thin  polished  boards  of  white  wood,  each 
about  a  foot  square,  they  wrote  the  Ten  Commandments  and 
some  of  the  best  stories  of  the  Bible,  until  the  Waganda  came 
to  have  a  little  library  of  board  books. 

One  memorable  day  King  Mutsea  called  to  him  his 
chiefs,  the  officers  of  his  guard,  and  Mr.  Stanley.  When 
all  were  seated  before  him  in  his  palace  hut,  Mutesa  began 
to  speak. 

“When  I  became  king,”  he  said,  “I  delighted  in  shedding 
blood  because  I  knew  no  better.  When  an  Arab  trader  came, 
however,  and  taught  me  the  Mohammedan  religion,  I  gave 
up  the  example  of  my  fathers,  and  beheadings  became  less 
frequent.  Ho  man  can  say  that  since  that  day  he  has  seen 
Mutesa  drunk  with  pombe.  But  there  were  a  great  many 
things  I  could  not  understand  and  some  things  which 
seemed  very  unreasonable ;  and  no  one  in  Uganda  was  able 


198 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


to  explain  them  to  me.  Now,  God  be  thanked,  a  white 
man,  Stamlee,  has  come  to  Uganda  with  a  hook  older  than 
the  Koran  [sacred  book]  of  Mohammed.  My  boys  have 
read  out  of  it  to  me,  and  I  find  it  is  a  great  deal  better  than 
the  book  of  Mohammed.  Now  I  want  you,  my  chiefs  and 
soldiers,  to  tell  me  what  we  shall  do.  Shall  we  believe  in 
Isa  [Jesus]  and  Musa  [Moses]  or  in  Mohammed?” 

One  of  the  group,  Chambarango  by  name,  spoke  up :  “Let 
us  take  that  which  is  the  best.” 

Then  Mutesa  again  addressed  his  chiefs:  “Chambarango 
says,  ‘Let  us  take  that  which  is  best.’  Listen  to  me.  The 
Arabs  and  the  white  men  behave  exactly  as  they  are  taught 
in  their  hooks,  do  they  not?  The  Arabs  come  here  for  ivory 
and  slaves,  and  we  have  seen  that  they  do  not  always  speak 
the  truth.  I  have  not  heard  a  white  man  tell  a  lie  vet.  The 

t/ 

Arabs  buy  men  of  their  own  color  and  treat  them  badly, 
putting  them  in  chains  and  beating  them.  The  white  men, 
when  offered  slaves,  refuse  them,  saying:  ‘Shall  we  make 
our  brothers  slaves?  No;  we  are  all  sons  of  God.7  What 
Arab  would  have  refused  slaves  like  these  white  men? 
When  I  think  that  the  Arabs  and  the  white  men  do  as  they 
are  taught,  I  say  that  the  white  men  are  greatly  superior 
to  the  Arabs,  and  I  think,  therefore,  that  their  hook  must 
be  a  better  book  than  Mohammed’s.  Now  I  ask  you,  shall 
we  accept  this  hook  or  Mohammed’s  hook  as  our  guide  ?” 

Seeing  clearly  just  what  the  king  wanted,  they  all  an¬ 
swered,  “We  will  take  the  white  men’s  book.” 

Thus  it  was  that  Mutesa  announced  himself  a  follower  of 
the  Christ  and  the  Christian’s  Book.  He  promised  to  build 
a  church,  and  begged  that  other  white  men  might  come  to 
teach  him  and  his  people  about  the  good  way. 

“Stamlee,”  he  said,  “say  to  the  white  people,  when  you 
write  to  them,  that  I  am  like  a  man  sitting  in  darkness,  or 
horn  blind,  and  that  all  I  ask  is  that  I  may  be  taught  how 
to  see,  and  I  shall  continue  a  Christian  while  I  live.” 

What  newspaper  man  could  keep  such  a  story  to  himself  ? 
As  a  Christian,  too,  Mr.  Stanley  must  be  true  to  the  king 
who  had  asked  to  be  taught  how  to  see.  Imagine,  then,  the 
surprise  in  store  for  many  in  London  when  they  found  this 
story  in  a  correspondent’s  letter  to  a  daily  newspaper: 


A  NEWSPAPER  MAN’S  INTERVIEWS 


199 


“King  Mutesa  of  Uganda,”  Mr.  Stanley  wrote,  “has 
been  asking  me  about  the  white  man’s  God.  Although  I  had 
not  expected  turning  a  missionary,  for  days  I  have  been 
.  telling  this  black  king  all  the  Bible  stories  I  know.  So 
enthusiastic  has  he  become  that  already  he  has  determined 
to  observe  the  Christian  Sabbath  as  well  as  the  Mohammedan 
Sabbath,  and  all  his  great  captains  have  consented  to  follow 
his  example.  He  has  further  caused  the  Ten  Commandments 
as  well  as  the  Lord’s  Prayer  and  the  golden  commandment 
of  our  Saviour,  ‘Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,’  to 
be  written  on  boards  for  his  daily  reading. 

“O,  that  some  pious,  practical  missionary  would  come 
here !  Mutesa  would  give  him  anything  that  he  desired — 
houses,  lands,  cattle,  ivory,  and  other  things.  It  is  not  the 
mere  preacher,  however,  that  is  wanted  here.  It  is  the 
practical  Christian,  who  can  teach  people  how  to  become 
Christians,  cure  their  diseases,  build  dwellings,  teach  farm¬ 
ing,  and  turn  his  hand  to  anything,  like  a  sailor. 

“Here,  gentlemen,  is  your  opportunity — embrace  it!” 

But  the  newspaper  correspondent  had  asked  a  very  hard 
thing.  London  folk  had  heard  before  of  King  Mutesa  of 
Uganda.  Two  earlier  travelers  had  described  Mutesa 
as  a  cruel  despot.  If  one  of  the  king’s  chiefs  failed  to  salute 
his  majesty  properly,  his  head  was  in  danger.  If  his  bark 
cloth  dress  was  not  tied  over  his  right  shoulder  according  to 
the  proper  fashion,  Mutesa  was  likely  to  order  the  man  to  be 
put  to  death.  Even  the  king’s  three  or  four  hundred  wives 
lived  in  daily  fear  of  death  by  order  of  their  master.  Such 
was  the  king  who  wanted  Christian  teachers. 

Then,  too,  the  young  men  of  England  thought  of  the  long 
and  dangerous  journey  across  a  country  with  no  railroads. 
They  thought  of  the  wild  animals,  of  the  deadly  hot  climate, 
and  of  the  cannibal  chiefs  through  whose  countries  they 
would  pass.  They  pictured  the  loneliness  of  living  so  many 
months  away  from  all  their  white  friends  and  loved  ones. 

Moreover  one  man  could  not  go  alone.  A  number  of  men 
would  have  to  be  found  who  would  go  in  a  party.  Thousands 
of  dollars  would  be  needed  for  traveling  expenses  alone. 
Was  this  undertaking  worth  all  it  might  cost?  What  would 
come  of  Mr.  Stanley’s  letter? 


LESSON  41 

•WHAT  HAPPENED  AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 
Head  Matthew  25:14-30;  1  John  3:16;  4:19 

In  the  office  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  London 
a  small  group  of  men  read  Mr.  Stanley’s  newspaper  letter. 
Unwilling  to  drop  the  matter  carelessly,  they  locked  the 
office  doors  and  knelt  together  to  ask  the  Father  to  tell  them 
what  he  wanted  them  to  do.  Three  days  after  Mr.  Stanley’s 
article  was  published  a  letter  came  with  a  promise  to  give 
£5,000  (about  $25,000),  provided  the  committee  would 
start  a  mission  to  Victoria  Lake.  After  a  week  of  prayer 
and  study  they  decided  that  they  would  send  letters  to  dif¬ 
ferent  newspapers  asking  for  men  and  money.  Soon  another 
gift  of  £5,000  was  made,  and  not  many  days  later  they  found 
that  £24,000  in  all  ($120,000)  was  ready  to  be  used ! 

These,  however,  were  not  the  only  letters  which  came  to 
make  them  glad.  Some  were  from  men  who  had  no  money 
to  give,  but  who  wanted  to  give  their  lives.  One  was  from  a 
retired  officer  of  the  British  navy,  Lieutenant  Smith.  One 
was  from  an  Irish  architect,  Air.  O’Neill ;  another,  from  a 
minister,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson;  another  from  Mr.  Clark,  an 
engineer;  and  another  from  Air.  William  Robertson,  an 
artisan;  and  still  another  from  Dr.  John  Smith,  a  physician, 
of  Edinburgh.  All  these  the  secretaries  at  the  office  said 
they  would  be  glad  to  send.  Another,  however,  a  carpenter, 
Mr.  James  Robertson,  they  refused  to  send  because  of  his 
poor  health ;  but,  having  already  sold  out  his  business,  he  said 
he  would  go  and  pay  his  own  expenses.  These  seven  men, 
with  one  other,  made  up  the  party  which,  in  answer  to  Stan¬ 
ley’s  appeal,  sailed  a  few  months  later  for  Alutesa’s  land. 

This  other  was  the  youngest  of  them  all — a  Scotchman 
named  Alexander  Alackay — who  wrote  from  Germany,  where 
he  was  serving  as  draughtsman  for  a  large  engineering  com¬ 
pany.  One  bitter  cold  night,  during  the  Christmas  holidays 
of  1875,  while  reading  a  copy  of  the  Edinburgh  Daily  Re- 

200 


WHAT  HAPPENED  AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ  201 


view,  his  eyes  fell  on  the  words,  “Henry  Wright,  Honorary 
Secretary,  Church  Missionary  Society. ”  lie  had  found  one 
of  the  appeals  sent  out  by  the  secretaries  in  London.  Al¬ 
though  it  was  after  midnight  Mr.  Mackay  wrote  to  Mr. 
Wright  offering  to  go  to  Mutesa’s  kingdom. 

By  the  end  of  April  all  the  party  had  sailed.  Friends, 
mothers,  fathers,  brothers,  sisters,  and,  for  some,  their  wives 
and  children,  they  might  never  see  again.  Yet  their  gladness 
was  more  than  their  sorrow.  They  believed  that  the  heavenly 
Father  was  their  leader.  He  had  raised  the  money.  He 
had  called  his  workers  and  they  were  now  going  with  him. 

Five  long  weeks  at  sea!  Then  down  by  the  equator  on  an 
island  a  few  miles  off  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  in  the  city  of 
Zanzibar,  the  busiest  seaport  in  East  Africa,  they  landed. 

But  the  kingdom  of  Mutesa  lay  about  a  thousand  miles 
beyond.  By  foot  or  in  African  hammocks  they  must  travel 
through  a  wild  tropical  country  for  a  distance  as  great  as  from 
Washington  to  Chicago.  Even  then  the  next  to  the  largest 
lake  in  all  the  world  would  separate  them  from  Mutesa’s  land. 

Before  setting  sail  from  Liverpool  they  had  ordered  books, 
clothing,  medicines,  hammers,  nails,  spades,  saws,  hatchets, 
axes,  chisels,  a  forge  and  bellows,  shovels,  grindstones,  a 
pump.  These  do  not  cover  half  the  list.  Perhaps  the  most 
unique  articles  were  a  printing-press,  a  magic  lantern,  a 
music-box,  and  a  steam  launch. 

Much  of  the  bulkiest  baggage  had  to  be  purchased  in 
Zanzibar.  When  it,  too,  was  collected,  the  next  problem 
was  how  to  get  it  carried  across  the  country  to  Mutesa’s  king¬ 
dom.  Having  nothing  but  crooked  narrow  trails  for  road¬ 
ways,  the  missionaries  would  have  to  pick  their  way  on  foot 
single  file,  using  black  men  as  beasts  of  burden. 

How,  even  sturdy  black  baggage-carriers  will  not  march 
with  a  burden  on  their  heads  weighing  more  than  about  sixty 
pounds.  So  all  the  white  men’s  freight  had  to  be  repacked 
before  it  would  be  ready  for  the  heads  of  the  porters.  Each 
bundle  must  be  ^haped  into  the  form  of  a  pillow-bolster, 
wrapped  in  cloth  and  tied  with  strong  rope. 

While  some  of  the  missionary  band  were  busy  packing- 
supplies,  others  were  toiling  at  perhaps  the  hardest  work  of 
all.  Trudging  from  hut  to  hut  in  the  Hegro  quarter  of 


202 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


Zanzibar,  they  were  hiring  baggage-carriers.  Others,  having 
crossed  the  channel  to  the  mainland,  were  plodding  about 
from  village  to  village  working  at  the  same  trying  task ;  for 
as  many  as  five  hundred  porters  were  needed.  For  many 
weeks  this  search  dragged  along.  Finally,  it  was  decided  to 
divide  the  party  into  four  caravans,  so  that  some  could 
begin  the  march  before  all  the  baggage-carriers  were  found. 

Two  of  the  caravans  had  not  yet  started  when  the  “angel 
of  death”  visited  the  camp.  “Within  six  months  you  will 
probably  hear  that  one  of  us  is  dead,”  Mr.  Mackay  had  said 
before  leaving  England.  Within  four  months  a  grave  was 
dug  for  the  body  of  James  Robertson,  the  carpenter,  who 
had  gone  with  the  party  at  his  own  expense.  He  had  given 
his  life  for  a  king  and  a  people  he  had  never  seen. 

The  next  to  the  last  caravan  to  leave  the  coast  was  Mr. 
Mackay’s.  Crowds  of  people  from  the  town  of  Bagamoyo 
flocked  to  see  the  white  man  and  his  procession  file  out  of 
the  village.  A  bugle  call  had  summoned  those  hired  for  the 
journey  to  gather  before  the  white  man’s  quarters.  A  man’s 
load  was  given  to  each  carrier  and  his  place  in  the  procession 
assigned.  It  was  an  interesting  sight  to  watch,  for  they 
stretched  along  the  path  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile. 

Talking,  laughing,  and  singing,  the  long  line  wound  here 
and  there  through  the  tall  jungle  grass,  down  some  little 
valley  or  up  a  tiny  hill.  But  the  sun  shone  hot  above  them, 
pouring  down  its  never-ending,  exhausting  heat.  The  orderly 
line  grew  irregular.  Some  straggled  behind,  blaming  Mr. 
Mackay  for  their  discomfort.  Those  accustomed  to  march 
walked  steadily  on  toward  a  river  about  three  miles  distant, 
where  they  knew  they  could  rest,  but  some  of  the  inexperi¬ 
enced  ones  wrere  already  lying  flat  on  the  ground  crying  for 
water  and  bewailing  that  they  had  ever  left  their  homes. 

During  the  first  few  days  the  men  insisted  on  marching 
only  an  hour  or  two  in  the  morning  and  on  resting  all  the 
next  day.  By  promising  higher  wages  if  they  would  march 
longer  each  day,  Mr.  Mackay  succeeded  in  getting  them  to 
march  from  sunrise,  or  soon  after,  until  about  noon.  Some¬ 
times  they  pushed  their  way  through  fields  of  grass  as  tall 
as  themselves  and  having  stalks  almost  as  thick  as  sugar¬ 
cane.  Every  now  and  then  they  were  startled  by  a  hippo- 


WHAT  HAPPENED  AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ  203 


potarrms  or  an  antelope  scared  from  its  hiding-place  in  the 
heavy  grass. 

Starting  off  again,  they  came  to  a  swamp  more  beautiful 
to  look  at  than  to  wade  through.  It  was  filled  with  large 
graceful  ferns  and  beautiful  pink  flowers  and  at  night  was 
alive  with  fireflies.  They  also  passed  through  fields  of  millet 
growing  to  a  height  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  feet.  At  another 
place  they  were  refreshed  by  the  cool  shade  of  a  park-like 
forest.  The  giant  cacti  and  euphorbia  trees  made  it  seem 
very  different  from  the  woodlands  at  home.  Sometimes,  with 
ax  and  hatchet,  foot  by  foot  they  had  to  slash  a  wider  path 
in  front  of  them  before  the  donkeys  could  wedge  their  way 
between  the  two  walls  of  underbrush  on  either  side. 

Finding  drinking  water  was  sometimes  the  hardest  prob¬ 
lem.  More  than  once  the  caravan  was  obliged  to  set  up 
camp  and,  with  empty  water-bottles,  to  walk  forth  in  search  of 
something  with  which  to  quench  their  thirst.  When  no  spring 
could  be  found,  the  natives  would  dig  holes  in  the  ground, 
which  would  usually  fill  with  a  muddy  looking  liquid  re¬ 
sembling  soapsuds. 

Through  his  attempt  to  hustle  the  slow-going  African,  Mr. 
Mackay  overtaxed  himself  and  was  taken  sick  with  the  Afri¬ 
can  fever.  For  a  few  days  he  was  too  weak  to  walk  and  was 
obliged  to  ride  one  of  the  donkeys  that  had  been  carrying 
baggage.  At  last,  however,  the  feverish  coast-plains  were 
left  behind.  Gladly  they  climbed  the  mountains  to  the  little 
town  of  Mpwapwa.  In  six  weeks  they  had  traveled  only  a 
little  farther  than  from  Hew  York  to  Boston. 

At  Mpwapwa  three  of  the  missionary  caravans  met.  For 
a  few  days  the  white  men  rested  and  talked  over  their  ad¬ 
ventures.  Then  two  of  the  caravans  were  off  again — made 
up  of  Dr.  Smith,  Mr.  Mackay,  and  over  three  hundred  bag¬ 
gage-carriers.  By  their  first  Sunday  they  overtook  another 
of  the  caravans  ahead,  led  by  Lieutenant  Smith. 

For  thirty  or  forty  miles  beyond  them  stretched  a  dreary 
plateau  covered  with  a  thick,  low  jungle.  Hot  a  human  being 
lived  in  all  this  lonely  region,  and  the  caravan  could  find 
neither  food  nor  water  except  what  they  carried  with  them  in 
knapsacks  and  water-bottles.  After  days  of  this  tiresome 
march  they  entered  the  wide,  open  land  of  Ugogo.  Here 


^04 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


every  few  miles  was  a  new  village;  and  with  every  group  of 
villages  they  found  a  new  chief.  Each  chief  insisted  that 
to  travel  through  his  country  was  a  privilege,  and  the  white 
man  would  have  to  pay  for  it.  This  not  only  added  a  great 
deal  of  expense  to  caravan-travel,  but  also  caused  many 
annoying  delays.  A  three  days’  camping  privilege  in  the 
realm  of  one  chief  cost  seventy  hales  of  cloth,  or  about  $100. 

On  entering  Ugogo,  Mr.  Mackay’s  fever  had  returned  and 
for  miles  he  had  to  be  carried  in  a  hammock.  A  good  supply 
of  water  tempted  him  to  stay  longer  in  Ugogo,  but  he  feared 
the  added  toll.  What  should  he  do  ?  Just  beyond  lay  twelve 
days  of  wilderness  travel  in  which  no  water  and  no  food  were 
to  be  found,  and  the  supply  of  provisions  was  very  low. 
Hard  as  it  was,  Mr.  Mackay  yielded  to  the  counsel  of  his 
friends  and  started  on  the  return  journey  to  the  coast. 

Lying  in  a  hammock  swung  from  the  shoulders  of  two 
strong  men,  Mr.  Mackay  was  carried  back  to  the'  town  of 
Mpwapwa  over  the  path  by  which  he  had  just  come. 

At  one  time  he  became  so  weak  that  he  expected  to  die. 
Calling  for  a  writing  desk,  he  mixed  an  ink  powder  and 
commenced  what  he  thought  would  be  his  last  letter  on  earth. 
But  during  the  night  a  change  for  the  better  came.  Mr. 
Mackay  said  a  bunch  of  home  letters  had  been  his  best  medi¬ 
cine.  During  the  next  eleven  days  he  walked  the  entire  dis¬ 
tance  from  Mpwapwa  to  the  coast,  and  on  reaching  Zanzibar 
he  was  almost  a  well  man. 

It  was  now  the  last  of  November,  1876.  One  year  had 
passed  since  Mr.  Stanley’s  letter  had  appeared  in  the  Daily 
Telegraph.  A  band  of  eight  young  men  from  Great  Britain 
had  started  for  Mutesa’s  land.  One  had  laid  down  his  life 
at  the  very  gateway  of  the  continent.  One,  having  started  in¬ 
land,  had  been  stricken  with  fever  and  was  obliged  to  begin 
«  the  march  anew.  One  had  settled  at  Mpwapwa  to  start  a 
mission  there.  The  other  five,  with  their  hundreds  of  black 
carriers,  were  plodding  along  through  jungle  and  swamp  and 
over  mountain  and  plain  towTard  Victoria  Lake. 

But  what  of  King  Mutesa  ?  Since  “Standee”  left  no 
word  had  come  from  the  white  men.  Were  they  going  to  leave 
him  “sitting  in  darkness”  ?  When  would  they  ever  come  to 
teach  him  “how  to  see”  ? 


LESSON  42 

JUNGLE  ROADS,  OX-CARTS,  AND  FLY  BITES 

Read  Luke  9:62;  2  Timothy  2:3;  Philippians  4:10-20 

Weary  as  Mr.  Mackay  was  of  this  snail-like  way  of  travel¬ 
ing,  he  set  to  work  immediately  to  prepare  for  a  second  cara¬ 
van  journey.  A  letter  from  England,  however,  changed  his 
plans.  The  secretaries  there,  having  heard  of  Alack  ay’s  sick¬ 
ness,  wrote  that  he  must  not  begin  the  march  into  the  interior 
until  June  when  the  rainy  season  would  he  over.  In  the 
meantime  they  said  he  might  see  what  could  be  done  about 
building  a  road  to  Mpwapwa. 

Eirst,  however,  supplies  must  he  sent  to  those  in  the  in¬ 
terior.  The  search  for  another  hand  of  baggage-carriers  is 
again  a  story  of  desperate  toil  and  hardship.  The  task  drag¬ 
ged  along  for  three  months  ere  the  caravan  was  started  on  its 
way  toward  Victoria  Lake.  The  young  missionary,  how¬ 
ever,  who  had  gathered  it  was  again  helplessly  ill  with  fever. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  kind  nursing  of  white  friends  in 
Zanzibar  his  life  story  would  perhaps  have  ended  here. 

Six  weeks  later  he  was  up  once  more  and  enthusiastic 
over  building  a  road.  Having  hired  forty  black  laborers, 
besides  women,  to  carry  loads  and  men  to  drive  donkeys,  he 
set  up  a  camp  about  five  miles  from  the  coast  on  the  top  of 
a  hill,  a  most  desirable  spot  because  it  was  high  and  exposed 
to  fresh  breezes  from  both  the  sea  and  the  land. 

Writing  from  this  camp,  he  said:  “I  sit  at  present  like 
Abraham  in  his  tent  door.  My  servants,  my  flocks,  and  my 
herds  are  about  me.  My  horse,  my  dog,  my  goat,  my  oxen, 
and  donkeys,  with  all  my  household  of  nearly  seventy  men 
and  women,  are  enough  to  feed  and  to  look  after  at  one  time. 
My  working  gang  consists  of  only  about  forty  men,  and 
these  I  have  armed  with  the  best  American  axes,  English 
hatchets,  picks,  and  spades,  and  saws.  All  these  tools  are  as 
new  to  them  as  they  are  to  the  natives  of  the  villages  we  pass 
through.  A  two-foot  grindstone  which  I  have  mounted  on  a 

205 


206 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


wooden  frame  is  more  serviceable  than  all  my  other  tools  put 
together.  Every  evening,  wheu  we  return  from  work  in  time, 
the  edges  of  the  tools  are  applied  to  the  face  of  this  wonder¬ 
ful  machine,  while  the  curious  villagers  crowd  around.” 

During  the  morning  hours  the  gang  would  be  busy  with 
axes,  saws,  and  shovels.  In  the  open  and  level  country,  men 
would  be  scattered  here  and  there  over  the  trails,  each  clear¬ 
ing  and  leveling  his  own  particular  stretch  of  the  road. 

In  the  dense  forests,  on  the  other  hand,  the  men  would  be 
huddled  together  like  colonies  of  ants,  doing  their  hardest 
work.  Where  a  narrow  trail  had  before  been  cut  through  the 
forest  the  branches  and  hanging  vines  were  so  closely  inter¬ 
laced  overhead  that  the  traveler  could  scarcely  get  a  glimpse 
of  the  blue  sky,  and  would  be  walking,  as  it  were,  through  a 
damp,  leafy  tunnel.  To  saw  through  a  tree-trunk  in  such  a 
tangled  mass  seldom  meant  that  the  tree  would  fall,  unless 
the  matted  undergrowth  were  first  slashed  away. 

Sometimes  they  shelved  out  a  footing  around  the  brow  of 
a  mountain ;  sometimes  they  had  to  cover  swampy  stretches 
with  layers  of  logs.  The  greatest  achievement  was  the  build¬ 
ing  of  a  bridge  in  seven  days.  The  ignorant  black  men  had 
never  before  seen  any  kind  of  bridge  for  wagon  traffic. 

Days,  weeks,  and  even  months  came  and  went.  All  the 
way  black  men  slashed  and  sawed,  and  dug  and  leveled,  while 
Mr.  Mackay  rode  or  walked  back  and  forth  among  them, 
encouraging  them  to  their  best  work.  Ofttimes  he  showed 
them  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it  by  taking  shovel  or  pick 
in  hand  and  leveling  banks,  or  filling  mud-holes.  Tie  pro¬ 
vided  their  food,  planned  for  their  shelter,  and  cared  for  their 
sick.  He  longed  to  be  able  to  talk  their  language  that  he 
might  tell  them  of  the  God  who  cared  for  them  and  wanted 
them  to  live  useful  lives.  Finally,  after  one  hundred  days  of 
vigorous  toil,  the  road  was  completed. 

Before  it  was  begun  there  was  only  a  narrow  trail  stretch¬ 
ing  for  the  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  to  Mpwapwa. 
When  they  finished  the  work  there  was  a  clear  road  all  the 
way  from  the  coast  to  the  mountains  and  it  was  broad  enough 
to  allow  the  largest  ox-carts  to  pass  each  other  at  any  point. 

When  the  road  was  completed  Mr.  Mackay  and  his  men 
returned  to  the  coast.  “How,”  he  thought,  “we  are  ready  to 


JUNGLE  ROADS,  OX-CARTS,  AND  FLY  BITES 


207 


travel  in  a  civilized  way.  We  will  buy  oxen  and  carts  for 
carrying  our  baggage  and  we  will  reach  Mpwapwa  in  half 
the  time  it  took  us  before.” 

Most  enthusiastically  he  began  preparations  for  the  jour¬ 
ney,  but  again  he  found  that  he  had  a  difficult  task  before 
him.  First,  oxen  which  never  had  been  hitched  to  carts 
had  to  be  broken  in  and  new  hands  taught  to  drive  them. 

Then,  too,  they  were  obliged  to  camp  in  a  very  unhealth¬ 
ful  place.  Up  in  his  old  camp  on  the  hill  many  of  the  oxen 
died  from  the  poisonous  sting  of  the  tsetse  fly,  and  Mr. 
Mackay,  with  his  men  and  flocks  and  herds,  was  obliged  to 
move  to  the  plain.  For  at  least  two  months  before  they 
started  on  their  journey  it  rained  nearly  every  day  and 
the  training  of  oxen  and  men  had  to  stop. 

Waiting  so  long  at  the  coast  for  the  rainy  season  to  pass, 
Mr.  Mackay’s  men  grew  discontented  and  unruly  and  somq 
of  them  deserted  him.  Also,  Mr.  Tytherleigh,  his  assistant, 
lately  arrived  from  England,  was  laid  low  with  fever.  They 
must  soon  travel  along  or  many  others  also  would  be  sick. 

In  spite  of  the  rain  and  mud,  therefore,  the  long  lumber¬ 
ing  caravan  moved  out  of  the  town.  There  were  six  large 
awkward  carts  loaded  to  the  full  with  baggage.  Teams  of 
from  eight  to  twenty  oxen  were  pulling  each  cart.  Many 
more  oxen  were  taken  as  reserves  to  fill  the  places  of  those 
which  might  be  injured  or  become  sick  on  the  road.  In  all 
there  were  as  many  as  eighty  oxen.  To  drive  and  to  lead 
these  animals  and  to  manage  the  brakes  on  the  carts  required 
thirty  men,  and  thirty  more  might  have  been  seen  carrying 
on  their  heads  bundles  of  baggage. 

After  ten  days  of  travel,  Mr.  Mackay  tells  this  story  of 
their  adventures:  “A  long  time  without  practice,  on  account 
of  the  rain  and  mud,  had  put  the  oxen  out  of  trim,  so  that 
when  we  set  off  we  were  able  to  make  only  a  few  hundred 
yards’  progress  the  first  day.  Hex t  day  more  rain  made 
matters  worse,  and  we  made  not  half  a  mile.  1  then  resolved 
to  remove  four  hundred  pounds  of  baggage  from  each  cart. 
After  a  couple  of  days’  rearranging  loads,  we  got  a  fair  start, 
but  another  deluge  of  rain  caused  us  to  stop  short  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill  where  our  old  camp  had  been. 

“After  ten  marching  days,  usually  with  double  teams  in 


208 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


each  cart,  and  wheels  down  to  the  axle  in  mud,  we  are 
camped  to-day  only  ten  miles  from  the  coast.  I  have  re¬ 
solved  to  send  back  two  of  the  larger  carts  with  their  loads.” 

About  two  weeks  later  (Christmas  Day,  1877)  he  wrote 
again:  “You  should  see  me  every  day  with  clothes  bespattered 
with  mud  and  hands  black  like  a  chimney-sweep’s  catching 
the  spokes  of  the  wheels  every  now  and  then  as  they  get  into 
holes,  and  yelling  at  the  top  of  my  voice  to  the  oxen,  till  the 
forest  resounds.  A  team  of  twenty-six  oxen,  frequently 
spanned  on  in  front  of  one  cart,  does  need  good  shouting  and 
lashing  to  get  them  to  pull  together.  It  is  not  walking  with 
my  umbrella  or  riding  on  a  donkey  behind  a  cart,  but  ever 
getting  some  one  or  other  or  all  the  carts  out  of  this  difficulty 
and  the  next.  My  men  are  constantly  bringing  the  carts 
against  trees  or  stones  or  into  holes,  not  infrequently  upset¬ 
ting  them  altogether.  It  is  hopeless,  for  instance,  in  trying  to 
cross  a  river,  to  have  one  ox  lie  down,  another  run  away, 
several  with  their  faces  to  the  cart,  where  their  tails  should 
be,  and  so  on.  One’s  patience  gets  tried  by  such  occurrences, 
but  the  only  way  is  patiently  to  arrange  all  and  try  again.” 

At  one  place  the  party  were  obliged  to  cross  a  river  very 
much  flooded  by  the  recent  rains.  They  could  not  wait  for 
the  water  to  recede,  for  thunder-storms  were  coming  as  fre¬ 
quently  as  ever.  Cross  it  they  must ;  but  how  to  do  it  was  a 
most  difficult  puzzle.  This  is  the  way  Mackay  solved  it: 
One  of  the  carts  was  stripped  of  its  wheels  and  all  other 
fittings  so  that  when  all  the  cracks  were  filled  with  tar  it 
made  a  sort  of  small  barge.  A  few  excellent  swimmers  of 
the  caravan  carried  a  cord  across  the  river.  By  means  of 
this  cord  a  rope  was  hauled  across  and  passed  around  a  strong 
post  on  the  opposite  side,  and  then  brought  back  to  the  side 
on  which  the  caravan  was  stationed.  To  this  pulley  the  cart- 
barge  was  attached.  By  pulling  the  rope  from  one  or  the 
other  bank  the  men  carried  the  barge  with  its  cargo  of  * 
freight  across  the  river,  or  brought  it  back  empty. 

One  day  the  accidents  were  not  confined  to  the  carts  or 
baggage,  but  Air.  Alackay  himself  was  temporarily  crippled. 
He  had  just  succeeded  in  getting  one  of  the  carts  over  a 
stream  when  he  became  entangled  in  a  bush  and  one  of  the 
wheels  caught  his  right  foot.  He  fell  and  the  wheel  ran 


JUNGLE  ROADS,  OX-CARTS,  AND  FLY  BITES 


209 


over  both  his  legs.  He  nearly  fainted  from  the  shock;  yet  a 
little  crude  doctoring’  revived  him  considerably.  Two  of 
his  men,  putting  their  loads  into  the  carts,  carried  him  along 
in  a  hammock.  However,  it  continued  to  be  a  day  of  troubles : 
for  cart  after  cart  upset.  Then,  too,  sick  as  he  was,  Mr. 
Mackay  was  obliged  to  turn  from  patient  to  doctor;  for  the 
chief  of  a  village  near  by,  hearing  of  his  arrival,  sent  to  him 
seven  of  his  subjects  to  be  vaccinated  and  one  little  boy  to  be 
cured  of  spinal  disease! 

One  morning  the  natives  gave  Mr.  Mackay  a  unique  sur¬ 
prise.  Lo,  his  road  had  been  changed  into  a  field  of  growing 
corn.  “We  thought  you  white  men  had  cleared  this  space 
for  us  that  we  might  plant  gardens/7  the  natives  explained. 

In  reality'  they  were  afraid  that  the  great  teams  of  oxen 
coming  along  the  white  man’s  road  would  soon  be  followed 
by  vast  European  armies.  In  many  places  they  blocked  the 
road  with  bushes  and  trunks  of  trees ;  as*  soon  as  the  cattle 
were  safely  across  a  river  they  drove  them  back  to  the  other 
side,  and  became  very  angry  when  they  saw  the  oxen  tread 
down  the  corn  planted  on  the  track.  Indeed,  one  chief  sent 
word  to  Mr.  Mackay  that  if  he  took  his  teams  past  the  chief’s 
village  he  would  be  shot. 

Still  one  more  misfortune  came  upon  them,  greater  than 
all  that  have  been  mentioned.  In  many  parts  of  the  road  the 
caravan  was  pestered  by  the  tsetse  flies.  These  were  large 
brownish-yellow  insects  which,  by  thousands,  stung  both  the 
men  and  the  oxen.  Although  they  seemed  to  bring  little 
more  than  discomfort  to  the  men,  their  sting  was  almost  in¬ 
variably  fatal  to  the  animals.  When  still  some  distance  from 
Mpwapwa,  half  of  the  eighty  oxen  with  which  they  started 
were  dead,  and  many  more  were  sick,  and  it  was  not  many 
weeks  before  the  surviving  oxen  became  so  few  that  the 
carts  were  abandoned  entirely. 

Thus  the  road  had  been  built  at  the  cost  of  nearly  one 
third  of  a  year’s  time.  With  much  difficulty  oxen  had  been 
trained  and  men  taught  to  drive  them.  4  Carts  had  been 
brought  all  the  way  from  India,  and  much  money  had  been 
spent,  and  months  of  hard  rough  labor  had  been  given  to 
make  travel  by  carts  a  success ;  but  the  little  brown  flies  with 
their  poisonous  stings  spoiled  it  all. 


LESSON  43 

THE  KING  HAS  A  CHANCE  TO  KEEP  HIS  PROMISE 

Head  Psalms  31:14;  02:5;  2  Corinthians  11:23-27; 

12:9,  10 

What  of  the  rest  of  the  brave  band  who  started  together 
from  England  ?  A  grave  to  he  seen  on  a  small  island  off  the 
coast  of  Zanzibar  told  the  story  of  one,  and  by  the  shores  of 
Victoria  Lake  on  a  wooden  slab,  above  a  mound  of  earth, 
could  have  been  read  the  name,  aDr.  John  Smith.”  Two 
more  of  the  party  had  returned  to  England  as  invalids. 
While  Mr.  Mackay  was  still  making  the  road  to  Mpwapwa, 
Lieutenant  Smith,  Mr.  O’Neill,  and  Mr.  Wilson  were  camp¬ 
ing  beside  the  far-reaching  waters  of  Victoria  Lake. 

To  these  men  tenting  on  the  lake  shore  came  two  most 
cordial  letters  from  the  king  they  were  so  eager  to  see.  Twice 
canoes  appeared  before  their  camps  and  guides  came  from 
Mutesa  to  escort  them  to  his  kingdom.  Leaving  Mr.  O’Neill 
to  guard  their  supplies  and  to  repair  the  steam  launch,  two  of 
the  white  men  hastened  to  the  northern  shore  of  the  lake. 

It  was  about  an  hour  after  sunset  on  a  June  day  in  1877 
when  their  boats  were  anchored  off  a  little  Uganda  village  at 
the  head  of  a  beautiful  bay.  Soon  some  of  Mutesa’s  chief 
men  arrived  to  say  that  they  must  come  to  his  palace  with 
the  escort  the  king  had  sent.  A  two  days’  walk  brought 
them,  at  last,  to  Rubaga,  the  capital  city,  where  they  were 
shown  to  the  huts  made  ready  for  them  by  the  king’s  order. 

The  first  day  the  king  paid  his  respects  by  sending  a  rich 
present  of  cooking  utensils,  bananas,  potatoes,  sugar-cane, 
milk,  pombe,  venison,  and  firewood.  Promptly  at  eight 
o’clock  the  following  morning  two  of  the  chief  officers  of  the 
king  came  to  escort  them  to  the  palace. 

The  broad,  straight  road  which  led  up  to  the  royal  hill, 
superb  in  itself,  was  made  especially  imposing  by  the  tall 
fence  of  elephant  grass  inclosing  it  on  either  side.  At  the 
top  of  this  hill  stood  Mutesa’s  palace. 

As  the  white  men  neared  the  royal  inclosure,  a  bugle  an- 

210 


THE  KING  HAS  A  CHANCE  TO  KEEP  HIS  PROMISE  211 


nounced  their  coming,  the  gates  of  the  courts  were  opened 
one  by  one  as  the  party  approached,  and  quickly  closed  be¬ 
hind  them  as  they  passed.  Two  lines  of  white-robed  soldiers 
made  a  lane  through  each  court,  each  soldier  carrying  a 
gun.  At  last  Lieutenant  Smith  and  Mr.  Wilson  found  them- 
selves  before  the  open  door  of  the  palace  itself. 

In  the  central  hall  sat  all  the  chiefs  of  the  country.  Some 
were  dressed  in  black,  some  were  in  white,  and  some  in  red ; 
but  all  the  costumes  were  of  Arabian  pattern.  All  the  chiefs 
arose  as  the  white  men  entered.  The  guests  were  conducted 
to  the  upper  end  of  the  hall,  where,  on  a  chair  of  white  wood, 
sat  his  Majesty  King  Mutesa. 

As  the  Englishmen  approached  Mutesa  arose  from  his 
throne,  shook  hands  with  them,  and  then  by  a  wave  of  the 
hand  directed  them  to  two  stools  near  him  which  had  been  re¬ 
served  for  them.  While  the  drums  were  beating  all  in  the 
room  feasted  their  eyes  on  the  central  figures  of  this  recep¬ 
tion  at  court.  Then  the  king  called  upon  the  white  men  to 
speak. 

Letters  were  then  read  from  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  and 
from  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in  London.  At  the 
close  of  the  reading  the  expressions  of  gladness  seemed  to 
have  no  bounds.  The  king,  half  rising  from  his  chair,  called 
his  chief  musician  and  ordered  a  more  vigorous  rejoicing. 
Drums  were  beaten,  horns  were  blown,  and  all  the  assembly 

7  7  u 

of  chiefs  were  bowing  their  heads  and  clapping  their  hands, 
and  saying  again  and  again,  “ Nyanzig “ Nyanzig ”  “We 
thank  you/’  “We  thank  you.”  The  king  asked  his  interpre¬ 
ter  to  tell  the  white  men  that  what  they  saw  and  heard  was 
all  for  the  name  of  Jesus. 

The  next  morning  the  missionaries  had  a  second  conversa¬ 
tion  with  the  king  in  the  presence  of  all  his  chiefs  and  cour¬ 
tiers.  For  some  reason  Mutesa  seemed  suspicious  of  them 
and  began  to  inquire  about  General  Gordon  of  the  English 
army  in  Egypt.  He  wanted  the  white  men  to  make  guns  and 
gunpowder,  at  the  same  time  confessing  “My  heart  is  not 
good.”  The  missionaries  told  him  that  they  could  not  make 
guns,  and  that  if  he  did  not  wish  them  to  stay,  they  would 
leave  Uganda.  Mutesa  was  silent,  then  asked :  “What  have 
you  come  for — to  teach  my  people  to  read  and  write  ?” 


212 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


“Yes,”  they  replied,  “and  whatever  useful  arts  we  and 
those  coming  may  know.” 

Then  calling  his  interpreter,  the  king  said :  “Tell  them  now 
my  heart  is  good ;  England  is  my  friend.  I  have  one  hand  in 
Uganda  and  the  other  in  England.” 

When  the  missionaries  reached  their  huts  after  the  morn¬ 
ing  baraza  (court)  was  over,  there  came  to  them  a  messenger 
from  Mutesa  saying  that  there  was  one  more  word  which  he 
wanted  to  say.  Eager  to  know  what  this  further  message 
was,  Lieutenant  Smith  and  Mr.  Wilson,  in  the  afternoon, 
went  a  third  time  to  the  king’s  palace.  They  found  him 
seated  in  a  room  with  a  few  chiefs  and  one  wife  present. 

He  said :  “There  is  one  word  I  want  to  say  to  you.  I  was 
afraid  to  speak  it  this  morning,  for  the  Arabs  were  present. 
This  is  it:  Hid  you  bring  ‘The  Book’  ?  That  is  all  I  want.” 

They  told  him  they  had  it  in  English  and  Arabic,  and  part 
of  it  in  the  language  spoken  at  the  coast,  which  Mutesa  knew 
slightly,  and  they  hoped  soon  to  give  it  to  him  in  Luganda 
(the  language  of  Uganda). 

Then  Mutesa’s  heart  was  very  good.  He  took  the  white 
men  out  into  his  palace  grounds  and  showed  them  the  beau¬ 
tiful  views  which  could  be  had  from  various  positions.  He 
also  pointed  out  two  sites  which  he  said  he  would  give  them, 
one  for  a  mission  house,  the  other  for  a  school. 

“When  will  they  be  built  ?”  they  asked. 

“To-morrow  my  people  shall  go  and  bring  wood.”  The 
king  was  as  good  as  his  word ;  the  next  day  the  work  began. 

Such  a  welcome  was  very  encouraging.  After  a  month’s 
stay  in  the  hut  Mutesa  had  built  for  them,  Lieutenant  Smith 
said  good-by  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  started  for  the  southern  end 
of  the  lake  to  tell  Mr.  O’Heill  how  royally  Mutesa  had  re¬ 
ceived  them.  He  expected  to  help  Mr.  O’Heill  launch  the 
mission  boat  and  pack  supplies.  Then  together  they  would 
return  to  Uganda.  "  But  their  hopes  were  never  realized. 
While  on  one  of  the  islands  both  Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  O’Eeill 
were  heartlessly  murdered  by  the  natives.  The  terrible  news 
was  reported  to  Mr.  Mackay  when  he  was  just  recovering 
from  another  attack  of  fever. 

Broken-hearted,  yet  believing  in  his  God,  he  wrote  to  a 
friend  at  home:  “Our  good  doctor,  my  own  dear  friend  of 


THE  KING  HAS  A  CHANCE  TO  KEEP  HIS  PROMISE  213 


many  years,  went  to  his  rest  nine  months  ago,  and  now  these 
brave  brothers,  Smith  and  O’Neill,  have  fallen.  There  were 
eight  of  us  sent  out — two  invalided  and  four  gone  home! 
Only  two  remaining.  Poor  Africa!  When  will  it  become 
a  Christian  country  at  this  rate  ?  But  God  has  other  hands 
in  reserve  whom  he  will  bring  to  the  front  and  the  work  will 
go  on  whether  we  break  down  or  not.” 

Since  a  wealthy  Arab  merchant  had  been  murdered  along 
with  the  missionaries,  Mr.  Mackay  was  afraid  that  the  Arabs 
would  take  revenge  on  the  king  who  had  murdered  them. 
Eager  to  prevent  further  bloodshed,  he  decided  to  hurry  to 
the  lake  as  fast  as  possible. 

Bundles  and  bags  were  safely  stored,  and  Mr.  Tytherleigh 
was  left  to  see  that  the  best  two  of  the  carts,  emptied  of  all 
freight,  were  dragged  to  Mpwapwa.  Mackay  himself  sped 
forward  as  fast  as  possible.  Eive  days  of  quick  marching, 
wading  and  swimming  through  jungles,  swamps,  and  rivers, 
brought  him  to  Mpwapwa.  A  brief  rest  and  he  was  again 
on  a  forced  march,  with  only  six  men  to  carry  outfit,  food, 
and  medicine.  For  three  months  he  tramped  through  jun¬ 
gles,  plodded  along  sandy  deserts,  and  picked  his  way  over 
stony  stretches  till  his  feet  were  blistered  and  bleeding. 
Every  step  was  painful.  Repeated  attacks  of  feVer  re¬ 
duced  him  almost  to  a  skeleton.  But  on  the  evening  of  the 
thirteenth  of  June,  he  stood  on  the  shore  of  Victoria  Lake. 
At  last  his  miserable  marching  was  over,  and  he,  too,  could 
hope  soon  to  present  himself  at  the  court  of  King  Mutesa. 

June  passed,  and  July,  and  August.  Indeed,  it  was  not 
till  November  (1878)  that  Mr.  Mackay  entered  the  capital 
of  Uganda.  Two  years  and  a  half  had  passed  since  he  had 
said  good-by  to  his  friends  in  the  home-land.  Two  years 
and  a  half  spent  merely  in  traveling  before  he  even  saw  the 
king  who  had  asked  Stanley  to  send  him  missionaries. 

But  Mutesa  had  not  forgotten  his  request.  For  over  a 
year  Mr.  Wilson  had  lived  near  his  palace,  and  the  black 
king  had  learned  to  like  him.  It  was  with  enthusiasm  that 
Mr.  Wilson  welcomed  Mr.  Mackay.  Both  felt  Mutesa  had 
really  meant  what  he  promised  to  Stanley. 


LESSON  44 

WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN  BECOME  ACQUAINTED 
Head  Luke  3:7-17;  5:3G;  2  Timothy  2:15 

During  the  first  few  weeks  after  Mr.  Mackay’s  arrival 
the  white  men  lived  near  the  royal  hill ;  but  because  of  the 
jealousy  of  the  chiefs  the  king  was  obliged  to  have  their 
quarters  moved  a  mile  and  a  half  away,  for  according  to  cus¬ 
tom  the  greatest  chief  should  live  nearest  the  palace.  The 
Arabs,  too,  were  jealous  and  had  told  the  king  that  the 
white  men  would  soon  take  his  kingdom  away  from  him. 

Mutesa  had  given  the  white  men  almost  two  acres  of  land, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  a  number  of  houses  were  built  upon 
it.  Within  four  months  after  Mr.  Mackay’s  arrival,  five 
missionary  recruits  from  England  reached  the  capital,  mak¬ 
ing  in  all  a  party  of  seven  missionaries.  As  homes  for  these 
several  other  huts  were  built.  One  man,  a  doctor,  built  a 
dispensary,  where  he  might  receive  his  patients.  Mr.  Mae- 
kay  put  up  two  workshops,  where  he  might  have  a  school  of 
mechanics.  A  schoolhouse  was  King  Mutesa’s  gift.  An  ex¬ 
tensive  garden  was  planted  with  vegetable  seeds  brought 
from  England.  Five  hundred  banana  plants  were  set  out, 
and  the  entire  plot  of  land  inclosed  by  a  tall  tiger-grass  fence. 

From  the  first  Mackay  became  a  special  favorite  of  the 
king  and  chiefs  because  of  the  marvelous  things  he  could 
make.  Often  his  workshop  was  filled  with  chiefs  and  slaves 
together,  who  stood  and  gazed  with  curiosity  as  he  toiled 
away  with  his  tools.  His  blacksmith’s  forge  and  bellows 
and  his  turning-lathe  were  marvels  unseen  before  in  Uganda ; 
and,  as  they  saw  him  sharpen  a  knife  on  the  revolving  grind¬ 
stone,  they  were  as  much  puzzled  as  were  those  who  had 
watched  him  when  he  was  building  his  road. 

In  the  evenings  Air.  Mackay  often  delighted  a  company 
of  natives  with  the  marvels  of  the  magic  lantern.  What 
mattered  it  to  them  that  the  chimney  had  been  built  of  two 
biscuit  cans,  one  placed  on  top  of  the  other  ? 

214 


WHITE  AND  BLACK  MEN  BECOME  ACQUAINTED  215 

When  Mr.  Mackay’s  skill  became  widely  known,  miscel¬ 
laneous  articles  for  him  to  repair  were  heaped  upon  the 
bench  in  his  workshop.  Native-made  steel  hoes  and  hatchets 
were  given  him  to  temper.  They  said  it  was  by  means  of 
witchcraft  that  he  was  able  to  put  hardness  into  steel  and 
then  take  it  out  again.  Even  when  one  day  he  rolled 
several  logs  up  a  hill  great  crowds  following  him,  crying, 
‘'Mahay  lubare!  Mahay  lubare  dala!”  (“Mackay  is  the 
great  spirit  ;  Mackay  is  truly  the  great  spirit.”) 

On  one  occasion  Mutesa  asked  to  see  a  steam-engine.  In 
the  presence  of  the  king  Mr.  Mackay  took  one  apart.  Mutesa 
burst  out  with  one  of  his  pretty  sayings :  “White  men’s  wis¬ 
dom  comes  from  God.  They  see  the  human  body  is  all  in 
pieces — joints  and  limbs — and  that  is  why  they  make  such 
things  in  pieces  too !  How  do  white  men  come  to  know  so 
much  ?  Have  they  always  known  these  things  ?” 

“Once  Englishmen  were  savages  and  knew  nothing  at  all,” 
answered  Mackay,  “but  from  the  day  we  became  Christians 
our  knowledge  has  grown  more  and  more,  and  every  year 
we  are  wiser  than  we  were  before.” 

“I  guess  God  will  not  prosper  any  man  that  does  not 
please  him,”  said  the  king. 

“God  is  kind  to  all,”  Mackay  answered ;  “but  especially 
to  those  who  love  and  fear  him.” 

However,  it  did  not  satisfy  Mrs  Mackay  to  have«the  crowds 
look  up  to  him  as  the  great  man  who  was  able  to  make  any¬ 
thing.  His  ambition  was  to  gather  pupils  and  to  teach  them 
to  make  useful  things  for  their  own  people. 

At  first  Mutesa  would  not  allow  anyone  to  be  taught, 
neither  did  the  men  and  boys  wish  to  learn  how  to  work,  for 
in  Uganda  it  wras  an  honor  for  a  man  to  be  idle.  In  that 

o 

tropical  climate  and  rich  country,  little  or  no  work  needed 
to  be  done  to  obtain  abundant  crops  of  fruits  and  vegetables. 
What  work  was  to  be  done  was  given  to  the  slaves  and  the 
women.  A  “gentleman”  in  Uganda,  therefore,  had  little  to 
do  but  to  order  his  slaves  and  wives  about,  and  to  attend  the 
daily  baraza  of  the  king.  That  Mr.  Mackay  worked  with 
his  hands  was  not  the  least  wonderful  thing  about  him. 

It  was  not  so  difficult  a  task  to  persuade  the  natives  to  come 
to  the  missionaries’  house  to  learn  to  read.  It  was  little 


216 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


more  than  a  month  after  Mackay’s  arrival  that  he  wrote: 
“I  have  a  whole  lot  of  pupils,  old  and  young.  Some  have 
made  wonderful  progress  already,  for  Waganda  are  very  apt. 

King  Mutesa  was  urgent  in  his  frequent  invitations  to 
the  white  men  to  attend  the  morning  baraza  at  the  palace. 
Things  which  seemed  very  commonplace  to  civilized  men  he 
had  never  heard  of  before.  When  Mr.  Mackay  told  him 
about  the  railroads  and  steamships,  and  explained  the  tele¬ 
phone  and  telegraph,  the  king  was  greatly  delighted. 

This  is  the  way  Mackay  summed  it  up,  and  Mutesa  was 
deeply  impressed:  “My  forefathers  made  the  wind  their 
slave ;  then  they  enchained  water ;  next  they  enslaved  steam ; 
but  now  the  terrible  lightning  is  the  white  man’s  slave,  and 
a  capital  one  it  is,  too !” 

One  day  an  Arab  trader  presented  himself  at  court  with 
guns  and  cloth  which  he  wanted  to  sell  for  slaves.  He  offered 
one  red  cloth  for  one  slave ;  one  musket  for  two  slaves ;  and 
one  hundred  percussion  caps  for  one  female  slave. 

Since  Mackay  was  present  that  morning  he  was  given  an 
opportunity  to  speak.  In  the  presence  of  all  the  chiefs  and 
courtiers  he  told  the  king  how  cruelly  the  poor  slaves  were 
treated  during  their  journeys  to  the  coast.  Mutesa  was  so 
much  moved  that  he  declared  he  would  sell  no  more  slaves 
and  the  traders  had  to  sell  their  guns  and  cloth  for  ivory  only. 

Some  d^ys  later  Mr.  Mackay  took  a  book  on  physiology  to 
the  palace.  By  means  of  pictures  he  showed  the  king  the 
different  parts  of  the  body,  and  how  the  blood  circulates 
through  them  all.  He  explained  many  things  so  that  Mutesa- 
might  see  how  wonderfully  perfect  the  human  body  is,  and 
that  no  man  or  group  of  men  in  all  the  world  could  ever  make 
one.  “Yet,”  he  said,  “the  Arabs  wish  to  buy  these  perfect 
bodies  with  immortal  souls  within  them,,  each  for  a  rag  of 
cloth  which  one  man  can  make  in  a  day.” 

Mutesa  was  convinced,  and  decreed  that  from  that  time 
no  one  in  his  kingdom  should  sell  a  slave  on  pain  of  death. 

“The  best  decree  you  have  ever  made,  King  Mutesa,”  said 
Mr.  Mackay.  But  alas,  it  was  one  thing  for  Mutesa  to  make 
a  decree  and  another  to  faithfully  carry  it  out. 

Often  on  Sabbaths  Mr.  Mackay  read  to  the  king  some  of 
the  parables  Jesus  told.  One  day  he  read  the  story  of  the 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN  BECOME  ACQUAINTED  217 

old  garment  and  the  new  cloth  (Luke  5:30),  how  it  was  not 
wise  to  tear  a  piece  off  of  a  new  garment  and  patch  an  old 
garment  with  it ;  for  the  new  garment  would  ho  spoiled  and 
tho  patch  would  not  look  well  on  the  old  gown. 

So  he  told  the  king  it  was  just  as  foolish  for  him  to  patch 
up  his  old  heathen  life  by  doing  a  few  Christian  things.  It 
was  no  use  for  him  to  try  to  he  a  heathen  and  a  Christian  at 
the  same  time,  to  keep  on  living  with  his  four  hundred  wives 
and  to  pretend  to  be  a  Christian;  to  buy  and  sell  God’s  chil¬ 
dren  as  slaves,  and  to  claim  to  follow  Jesus;  to  treat  his 
subjects  cruelly  and  to  order  them  killed  for  every  little 
offense,  and  still  to  pray  at  Christian  service  on  Sunday. 

Shortly  after  Mr.  Mackay  arrived  in  Uganda  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  were  surprised  to  learn  that  a  group  of  French 
Catholic  priests  were  on  their  way  to  Mutesa’s  land.  On 
their  arrival  the  king  received  them  with  his  accustomed 
cordiality  and  pomp.  But  from  that  time  trouble  began. 

King  Mutesa  seemed  bewildered,  “Every  white  man  has 
a  different  religion,”  he  said.  “What  am  I  to  believe  ?  Who 
is  right?  First  I  was  a  heathen,  then  a  Mohammedan,  then 
a  Christian;  now  other  white  men  come  and  tell  me  these 
English  are  wrong.  Perhaps  if  I  follow  these  new  men,  then 
other  white  men  will  come  and  tell  me  these  also  are  wrong.” 

Sometimes  King  Mutesa  was  kind  to  the  Erench  mission¬ 
aries  ;  sometimes  he  seemed  to  favor  the  English  more. 
Sometimes  he  was  disagreeable  to  both.  As  the  personal 
guests  of  the  king,  Mutesa  gave  the  white  men  homes  to 
live  in  and  provided  their  daily  food  until  after  the  French 
Catholics  came.  Then  many  a  day  English  and  French 
alike  suffered  from  hunger.  Later  they  heard  that  Mutesa 
was  very  ill  and  did  not  expect  to  recover ;  that  at  a  meeting 
of  chiefs  and  Arabs  it  was  decided  to  murder  all  the  English¬ 
men  should  Mutesa  die. 

Bequests  from  the  missionaries  for  permission  to  leave 
the  country  were  persistently  refused  by  the  king.  Finally, 
however,  he  decided  to  send  three  of  his  own  subjects  to  visit 
the  great  Queen  Victoria  and  two  missionaries  were  allowed 
to  go  as  an  escort.  Two  others  of  the  party  left  Uganda  to 
start  missionary  work  in  a  city  several  hundred  miles  south 
of  the  end  of  the  lake,  and  Mr.  Pearson  accompanied  them 


218 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


for  a  short  distance  to  get  supplies.  For  some  months  Mr. 
Mackay  and  a  Mr.  Litchfield  were  left  alone  in  Uganda. 

Strange  to  say,  during  these  months  Mutesa  became  enthu¬ 
siastic  over  the  subject  of  book  knowledge,  and  even  com¬ 
manded  all  his  chiefs,  officials,  pages,  and  soldiers  to  learn 
to  read.  The  mission  house  was  besieged  by  eager  learners. 
All  day  long  Mackay  and  Litchfield  were  never  without 
pupils  about  them,  some  of  whom  were  waiting  even  at  day¬ 
light.  Long  into  the  night  they  worked,  printing  sheets 
which,  during  the  day,  men  and  boys  were  taught  to  read. 

King  Mutesa  would  have  done  for  a  Chinese  puzzle.  One 
Sabbath  in  court,  in  the  midst  of  thd  enthusiasm  over  read¬ 
ing,  he  made  a  sudden  request  of  Mr.  Mackay.  After  the 
Scripture  lesson  was  read,  he  asked  abruptly,  “Can  anyone 
baptize  ?” 

“Ho,”  was  the  answer. 

“Can  you  ?” 

“Ho,  but  the  clergyman  is  qualified  to  do  so.” 

“I  wish  to  be  baptized  and  my  chiefs.” 

Mr.  Mackay  told  the  king  that  only  those  who  were  true 
Christians  should  be  baptized.  Jesus  had  said,  as  one  could 
tell  the  kind  of  tree  by  the  fruit  it  bore,  so  one  could  tell  a 
true  Christian  by  the  sort  of  life  he  lived.  Mr.  Mackay  had 
not  seen  either  him  or  his  chiefs  giving  up  lying,  witchcraft, 
murder,  Sabbath  breaking,  or  any  of  their  evil  habits.  Then, 
too,  if  the  king  wished  to  be  baptized,  he  must  be  willing  to 
live  with  only  one  wife. 

Several  days  later  Mackay  went  to  the  palace  and  found 
the  king  arguing  with  the  Arabs  over  the  Koran,  their 
sacred  book.  He  again  showed  interest  in  the  subject  of 
baptism.  He  said  he  would  put  away  his  wives  and  follow 
Christ  truly. 

Like  the  tall  grass  about,  his  own  courtyard  when  shaken 
by  the  wind,  Mutesa  swayed  back  and  forth,  uncertain  in 
his  attitude  toward  his  visitors.  He  gloried  over  having  the 
white  men  in  his  capital  because  of  the  presents  they  brought 
and  the  things v they  could  do.  How  he  would  favor  the 
French,  and  again  he  would  favor  the  English,  so  that  he 
could  keep  them  both  in  the  country.  The  missionaries  knew 
not  what  to  expect  of  him  or  how  much  to  believe  him. 


LESSON  45 

THE  KING  AND  THE  WIZARD 
Read  Exodus  20:2-6;  1  Kings  18:20-46 

About  Christmas  time  in  the  year  1879  it  was  rumored 
that  Mukasa,  the  great  wizard  who  lived  on  an  island  in 
Victoria  Lake,  was  on  his  way  to  the  capital.  Month  after 
month  the  Arab  traders  had  tried  to  take  their  ivory  and 
slaves  to  the  coast;  but  they  were  refused  canoes,  because, 
it  was  said,  ‘‘The  great  wizard  of  the  lake  is  about  to  visit 
the  king.” 

For  two  years  King  Mutesa  had  suffered  with  a  painful 
disease.  Many  native  doctors  had  tried  to  cure  him.  For  a 
time  he  had  been  treated  by  one  of  the  missionaries,  a  physi¬ 
cian,  and  was  temporarily  benefited ;  but  refusing  to  give 
up  some  of  his  wicked  habits  he  received  no  permanent 
good.  Since  he  was  daily  growing  weaker,  it  was  rumored 
again  and  again  that  he  would  soon  die. 

Finally,  the  queen  mother,  together  with  his  wives,  urged 
him  to  go  to  Mukasa,  the  greatest  of  all  the  wizards,  who  they 
were  confident  could  heal  him.  Upon  his  insisting  that  he 
could  not  leave  the  capital  they  persuaded  him  to  allow 
Mukasa  to  come  to  him. 

At  last  the  wizard. came  and  every  day  could  be  heard  the 
roll  of  drums  in  his  honor.  Men  carrying  loads  of  bananas 
from  the  king  to  the  wizard’s  camp  passed  by  the  mission¬ 
aries’  house.  He  would  heal  the  king  by  a  single  word, 
everyone  was  saying.  It  would  be  some  days,  however,  be¬ 
fore  he  would  make  his  way  to  the  palace ;  for  he  must  wait 
for  the  coming  of  the  new  moon  to  begin  his  work. 

The  morning  of  Thursday,  December  11,  brought  a  day 
long  remembered.  Baraza  had  already  commenced  when 
Mr.  Mackay  arrived.  After  various  subjects  had  been  dis¬ 
cussed,  and  seeing  that  Mutesa  was  in  good  spirits,  Mr.  Mac¬ 
kay  stepped  out  and  sat  down  on  a  stool  before  the  king. 

“May  I  ask  one  question  of  the  king?”  he  said. 

Mutesa  assenting,  he  asked,  “What  is  a  wizard  ?” 

219 


220 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


The  question  was  a  surprise  to  everyone.  Some  were 
offended ;  others  smiled,  while  Mutesa  seemed  to  take  the 
question  kindly.  He  began  to  explain  what  wizards  were: 
that  in  them  lived  the  spirits  of  the  gods.  He  also  said  that 
the  remains  of  his  dead  ancestors  were  guarded  by  persons 
thought  to  be  able  to  talk  with  the  departed  spirits,  and  that 
at  times  the  spirits  of  the  dead  kings  entered  into  them. 

“I  believe  you  have  little  confidence  in  the  powers  of  such 
pretenders/5  Mackay  said,  “but  I  have  heard  that  several  of 
your  chiefs  have  been  advising  you  to  go  to  the  wizard  to  be 
cured.  I  sit  before  you,  your  servant  and  the  servant  of 
Almighty  God,  and  in  his  name  I  beg  of  you  have  no  dealings 
with  this  wizard,  whether  a  chief  tries  to  persuade  you  to  do 
so  or  a  common  man  advises  you.  This  Mukasa  is  practically 
causing  rebellion  in  the  country,  for  he  disobeys  your  Majes¬ 
ty’s  orders,  and  asserts  his  right  over  the  lake  as  before  that 
of  your  Majesty.  It  is  now  more  than  five  months  since 
Mutesa  has  ordered  his  Arab  traders  to  be  supplied  with 
boats  to  go  to  Usukuma,  yet  those  traders  are  not  able  to 
start  because  of  Mukasa’s  counter-orders.  If  this  Mukasa 
is  a  wizard,  then  he  is  a  god,  and  thus  there  are  two  gods  in 
Uganda — the  Lord  God  Almighty  and  Mukasa  ;  but  if  Mu¬ 
kasa  is  only  a  man,  as  many  say  he  is,  then  there  are  two 
kings  in  Uganda — Mutesa,  whom  we  all  acknowledge  and 
honor,  and  this  Mukasa  who  gives  himself  out  as  some  great 
one.” 

Mutesa  seemed  to  see  the  point.  He  told  Mackay  that  he 
was  intending  to  hold  a  council  of  his  chiefs  with  a  view  to 
coming  to  some  decision  in  the  matter.  Mr.  Mackay  urged 
that  there  was  no  need  of  that;  for,  if  the  king  himself  be¬ 
lieved  the  wizard  to  be  an  enemy  of  God,  it  would  not  be 
difficult  for  him  to  lead  his  chiefs  to  believe  it. 

Then  Mutesa  opened  a  discussion  with  his  chiefs  on  “What 
is  a  wizard  ?”  Again  and  again  he  referred  to  Mackay’s 
words,  “If  Mukasa  is  a  god,  we  have  two  gods;  if  he  is  a 
man,  then  there  are  two  kings  in  Uganda.” 

In  the  midst  of  the  discussion  so  many  disturbances  arose 
that  Mutesa  told  Mackay  the  subject  would  have  to  be 
dropped  for  the  time,  but  that  later  he  would  attend  to  it. 

Another  opportunity  came  the  next  Sabbath.  “After 


THE  KING  AND  THE  WIZARD 


221 


prayers,”  Mr.  Mackay  wrote,  “instead  of  our  usual  reading 
in  Saint  Luke,  I  turned  over  the  Scriptures  from  Exodus  to 
Revelation,  reading  a  host  of  passages  to  show  the  mind  of 
God  toward  dealers  in  witchcraft.  -I  had  wonderful  atten¬ 
tion  to-day.  I  was  gratified  to  hear  one  of  the  chiefs  say 
that  the  list  of  passages  read  was  enough  to  set  the  matter 
at  rest,  and  there  could  he  no  more  dispute  as  to  the  unlaw¬ 
fulness  of  witchcraft.” 

It  was  hut  a  few  nights  till  the  new  moon  would  appear. 
From  one  of  his  pupils  Mr.  Mackay  heard  that  all  the  chiefs 
had  supplied  men  to  build  three  small  huts  for  Mukasa  and 
his  companions  in  the  king’s  inner  court,  and  that  they  had 
worked  late  by  moonlight  in  order  to  have  them  finished  by 
Monday  morning  when  the  wizard  was  to  arrive. 

There  was  still  a  little  more  delay,  however,  and  Mukasa 
did  not  arrive  as  soon'  as  was  expected.  Mackay  was  given 
another  opportunity  to  speak  to  the  king  Monday  morning. 
Mutesa  seemed  to  know  what  Mackay  wanted  to  talk  about 
and  he  gave  orders  for  all  noises  outside  the  court  to  cease. 

“Is  it  your  pleasure,  King  Mutesa,”  Mackay  began,  “that 
I  cease  teaching  the  Word  of  God  at  court  on  Sundays?” 

“Ko,  not  by  any  means.” 

“You  and  your  chiefs,”  continued  Mackay,  “have  now 
made  up  your  minds  to  bring  the  wizard  to  stay  at  court.  I 
have  no  right  to  interfere  with  your  orders  or  whom  you 
choose  as  your  guest ;  only  this  visitor,  for  whom  prepara¬ 
tions  are  made,  is  no  ordinary  guest,  hut  is  looked  up  to  by 
the  people  as  possessed  of  powers  which  belong  to  God  alone. 
We  cannot  mix  up  the  worship  of  God  Almighty  with  the 
worship  of  a  man  who  is  the  enemy  of  God.” 

Mutesa  listened  intently  and  then  said  to  his  chiefs,  “Do 
you  hear  what  Mackay  says  ?  He  says  that  we  cannot  bring 
the  wizard  here  without  offending  God.” 

“The  wizard  is  only  coming  with  medicine  to  heal  the 
king,”  one  of  the  chiefs  answered. 

Mackay  replied,  “The  wizard  is  not  merely  a  doctor,  but 
is  looked  up  to  by  all  as  a  god,  and  as  being  able  to  heal  people 
by  enchantment.” 

“The  white  man  is  right,”  admitted  the  king.  “I  know 
very  well  that  this  Mukasa  is  coming  to  use  witchcraft.” 


222 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


“We  should  only  be  delighted  if  Mukasa  could  cure  the 
king,”  continued  Mackay,  “and  neither  I  nor  any  other 
would  object  to  his  bringing  medicine  for  that  purpose.” 

“Gabunga  [the  head  chief  on  the  lake]  came  some  time 
ago  to  say  that  Mukasa  was  able  to  cure  me,”  said  the  king. 
“  ‘Bring  his  medicine,  then/  I  said.  Gabunga  brought  some ; 
but  said  it  was  of  no  use  unless  the  wizard  were  present  him¬ 
self  to  perform  the  cure.  They  say  the  spirit  of  my  ancestors 
has  gone  into  him ;  hut  do  you  think  I  believe  that  ?” 

“I  believe  Mutesa  has  more  sense  than  to  believe  anything 
of  the  kind,”  said  Mackay,  “for  when  a  man  dies  his  soul 
returns  to  God.” 

The  king  replied,  “What  you  say,  Mackay,  is  perfectly 
true,  and  I  know  that  all  witchcraft  is  falsehood.” 

Mackay  thanked  Mutesa  for  this  statement,  but  the  prime 
minister  and  other  chiefs  did  not  seem  pleased.  Poor  Mu¬ 
tesa  knew  not  what  to  do.  His  mother  and  his  friends  had 
persuaded  him  to  have  the  wizard  brought  to  his  capital.  He 
acknowledged  that  it  would  he  wrong  to  receive  him ;  yet  ho 
was  afraid  not  to  do  as  his  mother  and  his  chiefs  wished. 

“We  are  all  ready  to  honor  and  respect  your  mother  and 
your  relatives,”  again  Mackay  urged,  “but  God  is  greater 
than  them  all,  and  you  must  choose  which  you  will  serve, 
God  or  your  relatives.” 

Mackay’s  last  opportunity  to  plead  at  court  came  two  days 
before  Christmas.  When  all  were  seated,  Mr.  Mackav  was 
called  forward  and  a  woman  was  brought  in. 

Mutesa  said  to  Mackay,  “This  woman,  my  aunt,  has  been 
sent  to  bring  you  to  the  council  of  my  mother,  and  others  of 
the  family,  that  you  may  explain  to  them  why  you  refuse 
to  allow  me  to  see  the  wizard.” 

“I  will  not  go  to  explain  at  any-  other  court  than  this,” 
Mackay  replied.  “I  do  not  refuse  to  allow  your  Majesty  to 
see  the  wizard :  only  as  a  servant  of  God  I  warn  you  of  the 
sin  of  witchcraft.  I  use  no  force,  hut,  as  I  told  your  Majesty 
yesterday,  it  was  my  place  to  tell  you  the  truth,  while  you 
are  free  to  follow  or  reject  my  advice.” 

All  the  chiefs  began  to  talk  at  once  and  the  king  grew 
afraid  not  to  act  as  they  wished. 

Mutesa  then  said,  “How  wTe  will  leave  both  the  Arab’s 


THE  KING  AND  THE  WIZARD 


223 


religion  and  the  Bazungus  [white  men’s]  religion,  and  will 
go  back  to  the  religion  of  our  fathers.” 

Of  course  the  chiefs  were  delighted,  for  they  boldly 
“nyanzigged”  (bowed)  when  he  finished  speaking,  clapping 
their  hands,  and  saying,  “I  thank  you!” 

At  last  the  time  of  the  new  moon  came  and  the  following 
day  was  the  wizard’s  great  day  of  triumph.  The  mission¬ 
aries  did  not  go  to  the  palace  themselves ;  hut,  through  a  few 
of  the  more  friendly  natives,  they  learned  what  had  hap¬ 
pened.  It  was  reported  that  four  or  five  of  the  head  chiefs 
had  gone  to  the  king  and  told  him  that  if  he  did  not  receive 
the  wizard  and  have  the  old  religion  hack,  they  would  take 
his  throne  from  him  and  make  one  of  his  sons  kind;. 

Mr.  Mackay  writes:  “Before  dawn  I  was  awakened  hy  a 
terrible  beating  of  drums  in  the  neighborhood.  I  got  up 
and  looked  out  in  a  dense  fog.  I  gathered  at  once  that  it 
was  the  procession  of  the  wizard  going  to  the  palace. 

“I  afterward  learned  that  the  wizard  put  up  at  the  house 
of  Gabunga  [  head  chief  on  the  lake] ,  who  is  now  at  the 
capital,  till  midday,  when  he  was  received  at  the  palace. 

“All  agree  in  saying  that  a  vast  quantity  of  beer  was  con¬ 
sumed  by  the  wizard  and  chiefs,  Mutesa  scarcely  touching 
the  liquor;  that  the  king  sat  silent  all  the  time,  while  the 
wizard  sang.  Few  were  near  enough  to  know  anything  that 
the  wizard  said  or  sung;  but  one  man  says  that  he  predicted 
war  in  the  country'  from  the  presence  of  strangers,  not  now, 
perhaps,  but  within  four  or  five  years.” 

For  several  days  the  great  wizard  and  his  companions  pre¬ 
sented  themselves  at  court,  going  through  their  chanting, 
dancing,  and  drinking  as  on  the  first  day.  Finally,  the  last 
day  of  the  year,  Mutesa  refused  to  see  the  wizard  again  be¬ 
cause  the  cure  which  was  expected  had  failed.  Mukasa  was 
obliged  to  leave  and  return  to  his  island  home. 

So  the  year  ended.  King  Mutesa  had  yielded  to  the  per¬ 
suasions  of  his  chiefs  and  relatives  and  had  returned  to  his 
old  heathen  ways,  only  to  be  disappointed  again  by  the  false 
pretensions  of  the  heathen  wizard.  What  might  next  be  ex¬ 
pected  no  one  dared  to  predict. 


LESSON  46 

THE  TWO-FACED  MUTESA  AND  THE  MOHAMMEDANS 
Head  Matthew  5 :43  to  6 :15 

Eor  King  Mntesa  it  was  as  easy  to  change  his  religion  as 
to  change  his  clothes.  Two  weeks  after  he  had  compelled 
his  court  to  do  reverence  to  the  wizard  he  said  to  his  chiefs : 

“Why  are  you  not  continuing  to  learn  to  read  ?  You  are 
all  trying  to  gather  riches  for  this  world.  You  had  better 
prepare  for  the  world  to  come.  Here  are  white  men  who 
have  come  to  teach  you  religion.  Why  do  you  not  learn  ?” 

He  even  went  so  far  as  to  give  reading  sheets  to  his  chiefs 
and  pages,  many  of  whom  began  to  study  for  the  first  time. 

Yet  during  the  months  which  followed  the  wizard’s  visit 
the  missionaries  were  very  much  neglected  by  Mutesa.  He 
no  longer  sent  them  presents  of  bananas,  goats,  and  chickens, 
and  their  supply  of  cowry-shells  for  buying  food  became  ex¬ 
hausted.  They  needed  also  oil  for  their  lamps,  paper  for 
printing,  and  many  other  things  not  to  he  had  in  Uganda. 

So  in  April,  1880,  Mr.  Mackay  started  on  a  journey  to 
Uyui,  several  hundred  miles  south  of  the  lake,  where  were 
other  English  missionaries  who  had  lately  come  from  Eng¬ 
land  with  fresh  supplies. 

About  three  months  after  Mr.  Mackay  had  left  the  capital 
the  fickle  Mutesa  again  changed  his  religion.  One  night  he 
dreamed  that  he  saw  ten  moons  and  an  eleventh  which  was 
both  larger  and  brighter  than  any  of  the  others.  The  big 
bright  moon  waxed  more  and  more  brilliant  and  grew  larger 
and  larger  until  the  ten  other  moons  came  and  bowed  down 
before  it.  While  Mutesa  was  wondering  what  the  dream 
meant  he  thought  he  saw  two  angels  standing  before  him 
and  he  was  frightened  by  their  angry  looks. 

“Why  have  you  and  your  court  ceased  to  pray  the  Moham¬ 
medan  prayers  ?”  one  of  the  angels  asked. 

Now  all  Mohammedans  are  taught  to  pray  five  times  a 
day.  In  order  that  everyone  may  know  just  the  time  when 

224 


TWO-FACED  MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 


225 


the  prayers  should  be  said  a  priest  calls  loudly  Arabic  words 
which  mean  “God  is  great.  I  bear  witness  that  there  is  no 
god  but  God !  I  bear  witness  that  Mohammed  is  the  Prophet 
of  God  !  Come  to  prayers  !  Come  to  prayers  !  Cotne  to  sal¬ 
vation!  There  is  no  other  god  but  God!”  Immediately 
every  good  Mohammedan  believes  that  his  first  duty  is  to 
wash  his  hands  and  kneel  down  to  pray. 

So  the  angel  said  to  Mutesa :  “If  you  wish  to  be  prosperous 
and  your  land  to  grow,  return  at  once  to  this  old  custom  and 
call  the  people  to  prayer  as  the  Koran  commands.” 

On  telling  the  dream  to  his  wives,  Mutesa  was  easily  per¬ 
suaded  to  think.that  he  was  like  the  large  moon  and  that  soon 
ten  kingdoms  would  come  and  beg  him  to  rule  over  them. 

On  meeting  his  chiefs  at  morning  baraza  the  proud  king 
repeated  his  dream  to  them  also.  Then  and  there  he  com¬ 
manded  them  all  to  obey  the  order  of  the  angels  and  to  pray. 

Mutesa’s  command  needed  merely  to  be  given  and  the 
royal  palace  resounded  with  the  prayers  of  scores  of  men 
ready  to  follow  any  religion  their  king  might  choose. 

Mutesa  announced  that  he  himself  was  no  longer  a  wor¬ 
shiper  of  the  gods  of  Uganda  or  a  follower  of  Isa  (Jesus), 
but,  from  henceforth,  his  religion  was  that  of  Mohammed. 
In  the  church  where  only  a  short  while  before  men  had 
prayed  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  now  Mohammedan  prayers  were 
chanted.  Every  chief  was  accompanied  by  a  boy  carrying 
a  mat  and  a  kettle,  so  that  at  the  call  to  prayer  he  might  wash 
his  hands  and  kneel  on  the  mat  in  obedience  to  the  Koran. 

Some  days  after  the  public  announcement  of  his  new  re¬ 
ligion,  Mutesa  declared  that  since  he  had  determined  to 
follow  the  dream  he  had  been  cured  of  his  long-standing 
sickness.  For  some  time  he  held  baraza  regularly  in  the 
grand  style  which  had  been  habitual  years  before,  but  which 
was  set  aside  after  he  began  to  suffer  from  his  lingering 
disease.  But  soon  the  malady  proved  as  serious  as  before. 

During  this  period,  when  the  Mohammedans  enjoyed  the 
royal  favor,  the  Arabs  gloried  alike  in  their  own  power  and 
in  the  seeming  defeat  of  their  enemies,  the  white  men. 

On  Mr.  Mackay’s  return  from  the  southern  end  of  the 
lake  they  were  ready  to  slander  the  missionaries  whenever  it 
was  possible  to  do  so.  One  morning,  when  a  goodly  number 


226 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


were  present  at  baraza,  the  Arabs  said,  “The  English  are 
taking  advantage  of  Mutesa’s  illness.  They  are  building  a 
castle  of  clay  wnich  will  become  a  fort;  and  they  hav^e  many 
guns.  When  they  finish  building  they  will  fight.” 

Mutesa  answered:  “The  English  are  at  Zanzibar  and  have 
not  yet  taken  that  place.  Is  it  likely  that  they  will  begin 
fighting  here  when  they  have  not  yet  ‘eaten’  any  part  of  the 
coast?  I  accept  your  religion,  and  do  not  want  the  religion 
of  the  Bazungu  [white  men].  Leave  off  then  abusing  them.” 

Pleased  that  he  had  professed  to  accept  their  faith,  the 
Arabs  began  to  flatter  him  because  of  his  wisdom. 

“The  Bazungu they  said,  “do  not  know  how  to  pray. 
They  never  wash  their  hands  before  eating.  They  keep  dogs, 
which  are  unclean  animals.  They  eat  swine’s  flesh.  We 
eat  only  clean  animals,  we  always  wash  before  eating  and 
before  praying,  and  we  pray  four  and  five  times  a  day.” 

Mutesa  again  praised  the  Mohammedan  religion  and  de¬ 
creed  that  all  should  pray  as  the  Arabs  did,  and  that  every 
one  who  was  found  not  doing  so  should  be  caught  and  killed. 

Later  another  discussion  arose  at  court  about  the  religions 
of  Christ  and.  Mohammed.  Mr.  O’Flaherty,  who  had  taken 
Mr..  Pearson’s  place,  took  the  side  of  the  Christians. 

“In  what  does  the  wealth  of  Europe  and  Zanzibar  con¬ 
sist  ?”  asked  Mutesa  of  one  of  the  Arabs  present. 

The  Arab  mentioned  houses,  lands,  cattle,  slaves,  ivory, 
merchandise,  pearls,  gold,  and  silver. 

“In  what  does  the  wealth  of  Uganda  consist  ?”  asked  Mr. 
O’Elaherty  of  the  king. 

“Our  riches,”  said  Mutesa,  “lie  in  ivory  and  women  and 
cattle  and  slaves  and  houses.” 

Mr.  O’Elaherty  replied,  “Ivory  will  by-and-by  be  all  gone; 
your  women  die  every  day  of  the  plague ;  your  cattle  get 
eaten  up ;  your  slaves  die ;  and  your  houses — why,  I  could  set 
them  all  on  fire  with  one  match.  What  will  you  have  then  ? 
All  these  things  perish.  I,  therefore,  advise  you  to  seek  the 
true  riches  which  are  above  and  which  cannot  pass  away. 
Seek  first  to  know  God,  and  to  love  him  with  all  your  heart, 
and  then  you  will  have  wealth  which  will  last  always.” 

“I  want  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  Jesus  Christ,”  Mutesa 
replied.  “I  want  goods  and  women.  The  religion  of  Jesus 


TWO-FACED  MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 


227 


Christ  will  not  give  these  to  me,  so  I  will  not  have  it.  The 
white  men  told  me  that  God  would  protect  those  who  read 
the  Book.  Smissi  [  Lieutenant  Smith]  was  a  man  who  read 
the  book  of  Jesus  Christ  and  he  was  killed.  Does  not  Jesus 
Christ  always  abuse  people  ?  Did  he  not  try  to  make  the 
J ews  accept  his  religion  ?  But  they  would  not  have  it  and 
killed  him  and  scattered  his  followers.  I  don’t  want  the 
Bazungu  to  come  here  with  empty  words.  I  want  them  to 
work  and  to  bring  me  goods  like  the  Arabs.  If  they  will  not 
make  me  ships  and  cannon,  I  do  not  want  them.  They  tell 
me  about  God.  Who  ever  saw  God?” 

In  answer  Mr.  O’Flaherty  asked  Mutesa,  “Did  you  ever 
see  pain  ?  Yet  you  have  certainly  felt  it  and  know  what  it 
is.  Did  you  ever  see  the  wind  ?  Yet  you  know  it  is  there.” 

While  the  Arabs  continued  in  Mutesa’s  favor  they  used 
their  keenest  ingenuity  in  inventing  stories  against  the  mis¬ 
sionaries.  Mr.  Mackay  seemed  to  he  more  fiercely  slandered 
than  any  of  the  rest.  At  baraza  one  morning,  the  crafty  Mu¬ 
tesa,  always  eager  to  start  exciting  discussions  at  court,  said, 
“ Mahay  milalu ”  (Mackay  is  mad).  Having  waited  such 
an  opportunity,  the  Arabs  boldly  presented  their  charges. 

They  said  that  Mackay  was  a  criminal  of  the  worst  sort; 
that  he  had  murdered  two  men  in  England;  that  on  the 
steamer  bound  for  Africa  he  had  threatened  to  shoot  the  cap¬ 
tain  ;  that  he  wTas  compelled  to  flee  from  Zanzibar  because  of 
more  murders  he  committed  there;  that  in  ITnyanyembe  he 
had  carried  two  revolvers,  hoping  for  an  opportunity  to  kill 
the  governor ;  that  it  was  very  dangerous  to  allow  him  to  re¬ 
main  in  Uganda,  for  he  was  insane  and  tried  to  murder 
people.  They  further  declared  that  Mackay  had,  on  that 
very  morning,  given  the  speaker  a  present  and  had  besought 
him  not  to  make  public  the  facts  about  his  wicked  life. 

When  the  story  of  that  morning’s  baraza  was  told  Mr. 
Mackay  he  wrote  in  his  journal: 

“God  is  over  all,  and  he  is  our  God  and  our  sole  defense. 
We  now  can  understand  to  the  full  the  meaning  of  that  bless¬ 
ing  which  we  are  promised  when  men  shall  revile  us,  and 
persecute  us,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  us 
falsely  for  his  sake.  We  are  his,  and  it  matters  not  what 
man  can  do  to  us.” 


LESSON  47 

THE  NEW  TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 
Read  Acts  2  :37-'_7 ;  19  :8-20 

October  8,  1881,  was  a  great  day  for  tbe  two  English 
missionaries  in  Uganda.  The  day  brought  nothing  unusual 
but  a  letter  addressed  to  Air.  Alackay. 

The  letter  was  short  as  it  contained  but  two  sentences. 
It  was  not  beautifully  written,  yet  it  brought  Air.  Alackay 
the  best  news  he  had  heard  since  reaching  Uganda.  During 
all  the  three  years  he  had  spent  in  Alutesa’s  kingdom,  not  a 
single  black  man  or  woman  in  the  country,  as  far  as  he  knew, 
had  showed  that  he  truly  wanted  to  be  a  Christian.  This 
little  letter  bringing  the  good  news  wras  from  one  of  Alac¬ 
kay’ s  first  pupils,  a  young  man  named  Sembera. 

“Bwana  [Alaster]  Alackay,”  it  read,  “Sembera  has  come 
with  compliments  and  to  give  you  the  great  news.  Will  you 
baptize  him,  because  he  believes  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ  ?” 

Never  afterward  was  Sembera  ashamed  of  being  a  Chris¬ 
tian.  Although  only  a  slave  boy,  he  was  ever  trying  to  pen 
suade  others  to  become  Christians.  Two  years  after  his 
baptism  two  young  men  whom  he  himself  had  won  acknowl¬ 
edged  Jesus  as  Lord  and  Saviour;  and  even  his  old  master 
became  a  Christian,  because  Sembera  had  taught  him  of  Jesus. 

About  five  months  after  Sembera’s  letter  was  received 
the  first  five  Christian  Waganda  then  living  were  baptized  by 
Air.  O’Elaherty.  For  this  special  service  the  missionaries’ 
home  was  turned  into  a  chapel.  After  the  solemn  and  im¬ 
pressive  ceremony  of  the  morning  was  over  a  bounteous 
dinner  was  served  to  about  thirty  lads  and  men  and  a  goodly 
number  of  women  besides,  Air.  Alackay  being  the  chief  cook. 
It  was  a  very  happy  as  well  as  a  solemn  day ;  and  others,  too, 
began  to  think  seriously  of  coming  out  boldly  for  Christ. 

The  five  young  men  who  were  baptized  had  all  been  pupils 
in  the  white  men’s  school  for  a  long  time,  and  had  repeatedly 
expressed  their  determination  to  be  followers  of  Jesus.  To 

'  ’  228 


THE  NEW  TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 


229 


make  everyone  feel  that  these  young  men  were  beginning 
a  new  life,  they  were  given  new  names  when  baptized.  Sem- 
bera  was  now  called  Sembera  Mackay.  One  was  named 
Philipo  for  Mr.  O’Flaherty  and  the  other  Edwardo.  The 
fourth  was  called  Henry  Wright,  for  one  of  the  missionary 
secretaries  in  England ;  and  the  fifth  Yakobo,  meaning  Jacob. 

From  this  time  on  the  number  of  those  who  were  earnestly 
seeking  to  learn  how  to  follow  the  white  man’s  religion 
steadily  increased.  Some  walked  three,  four,  and  five  hours 
to  reach  the  missionaries’  home.  One  faithful  chief  was 
obliged  to  wade  through  a  swamp  up  to  his  waist  in  going 
from  his  home  to  that  of  the  missionaries. 

One  day  a  chief  came  who  said  he  had  heard  one  morning 
at  baraza  the  discussions  between  Mr.  O’Flaherty,  the  king, 
and  the  Arabs,  and  he  wanted  now  to  hear  more  of  what  the 
white  man  had  to  say.  Mr.*  O’Flaherty  gave  the  chief  his 
evenings.  Occasionally  he  went  to  the  chief’s  home  to  teach 
him.  Calling  one  day  at  his  hut,  he  was  happily  surprised 
to  find  the  chief  teaching  his  wives,  some  to  say  the  alphabet, 
some  to  spell,  and  some  to  read  the  Lord’s  Prayer. 

One  morning  the  man  who  had  been  the  special  wizard 
or  priest  for  this  chief  came  also  to  the  missionaries’  home. 
Many  regular  pupils  and  visitors,  together  with  other  wizards 
and  worshipers  of  the  spirits,  were  present.  In  the  midst  of 
the  teaching  this  priest  knelt  at  the  feet  of  Mr.  O’Flaherty. 

“I  will  cast  off  these  charms  of  the  spirits,  whom  I  will 
never  again  serve,”  he  cried.  “They  are  liars  and  cheats. 
I  will  follow  Jesus  and  learn  his  ways.”  On  saying  this,  he 
cut  off  the  valuable  charms  he  carried  about  his  person  and 
took  off  his  priest’s  robes  and  threw  them  all  into  the  fire. 

Soon  after  this  the  chief  was  ordered  by  the  king  to  go 
to  a  distant  part  of  the  country.  Having  been  away  some 
months,  he  sent  his  converted  priest  back  to  the  mission 
house,  several  days’  journey,  to  ask  for  a  prayer  book.  It 
happened  that  when  he  arrived,  another  priest,  richly  robed 
and  adorned  with  charms,  was  talking  with  Mr.  Mackay. 
The  heathen  priest  was  describing  his  different  kinds  of 
charms;  one  he  had  to  keep  off  lightning;  one  was  to  heal 
snake  bites;  and  others  were  to  heal  various  kinds  of  sick¬ 
nesses.  Mr.  Mackay  finally  persuaded  the  man  to  allow  him 


230 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  HEADER 


for  a  few  minutes  to  have  one  of  his  most  precious  charms 
which  he  carried  on  his  head.  On  handing  it  over  to  the 
missionary  the  wizard  cautioned  Mr.  Mackay  not  to  place  it 
on  his  head  lest  some  dreadful  calamity  should  he  sent  upon 
him  by  the  god.  This  was  the  very  thing  Mr.  Mackay  did, 
at  the  same  time  addressing  the  crowd  of  Waganda.  Ex¬ 
pecting  to  see  Mackay  smitten  dead  on  the  spot,  some  of  the 
people  were  so  frightened  that  they  ran  away. 

Then  the  converted  wizard,  stepping  forward,  boldly  ad¬ 
dressed  the  people.  He  told  them  how  he  had  thrown  all  his 
charms  and  his  priestly  robes  into  the  fire,  for  he  had  been 
led  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Great  High  Priest 
of  the  true  God.  Those  present  were  deeply  moved,  and  many 
went  away  asking,  “Is  not  the  Christian’s  God  the  true  God  ?” 

These  interesting  and  encouraging  things  were  happening 
while  the  Waganda  everywhere  were  living  in  constant  fear 
of  death.  The  land  was  sorely  stricken  with  the  plague, 
much  as  Egypt  was  in  the  days  of  Moses.  When  this  was 
at  its  worst,  it  seemed  as  if  there  was  not  a  single  house  in 
Uganda  where  at  least  one  had  not  died. 

The  disease  snatched  several  from  the  noble  Christian 
band.  Two  of  these  victims,  young  men  of  the  king’s  house¬ 
hold,  were  expecting  to  be  baptized  in  a  few  months.  When 
smitten  with  the  plague,  however,  they  were  treated  as  were 
all  others  and  carried  off  into  the  jungle  and  left  to  die. 

Mr.  O’Flaherty,  hearing  what  had  been  done,  hastened 
to  them.  There  were  a  few  words  of  cheer  and  a  short 
prayer  by  the  missionary.  “I  shall  never  forget,”  wrote  Mr. 
O’Flaherty,  “the  look  up  to  heaven  by  the  first  young  man, 
Mukasa,  and  the  words,  among  many  others,  to  the  effect 
that,  although  he  was  leaving  an  earthly  palace,  he  was  going 
to  the  palace  in  heaven;  and  turning  to  his  friend  he  said, 
‘Jesus  our  Saviour  is  King.’  His  hands  were  clasped  in 
mine,  but  in  a  paroxysm  of  burning  agony  he  released  his 
grasp  and  passed  away.  Turning  to  my  other  friend,  I  found 
him  already  in  the  throes  of  death,  but  I  felt  his  name  was 
entered  on  the  Book  of  Life  in  heaven.” 

Another  victim  of  the  plague  was  Pliilipo  Mukasa,  one  of 
the  first  five  baptized  by  the  missionary.  For  a  long  time 
he  had  been  Mr.  O’Flaherty’s  personal  friend.  Once  he 


THE  NEW  TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 


231 


weakened  under  the  tempting  offer  of  his  brother  who  prom¬ 
ised  him  a  wife  if  Pliilipo  would  become  his  heathen  priest. 
But  with  his  wife  Sarah  he  soon  returned  to  the  missionaries, 
asking  that  both  be  permitted  to  remain  with  them. 

At  all  other  times  Philipo  was  true  to  his  God.  Even  be¬ 
fore  he  was  baptized  he  had  suffered  persecution  for  the 
white  men’s  religion.  When  Mutesa,  because  of  his  dream, 
had  turned  his  court  into  a  Mohammedan  assembly,  Philipo 
was  the  janitor  of  the  church  where  the  chiefs  went  to  repeat 
Mohammedan  prayers.  Philipo  refused  to  join  them,  and 
said  ‘that  the  religion  of  J esus  was  the  only  true  religion. 
When  his  words  were  reported  to  the  king  the  brave  young 
man  was  put  in  the  stocks. 

Sarah  became  as  noble  a  Christian  as  Philipo.  First  she 
was  a  haughty  savage  who  refused  to  touch  the  white  men’s 
food.  “Can  a  woman  learn  ?”  she  asked,  when  they  tried  to 
teach  her.  Soon,  however,  she  became  a  good  reader  and, 
more  than  that,  a  very  helpful  person  about  the  place.  One 
day  she  was  seen  working  in  the  garden  with  the  other  women. 

“Sarah,’’  asked  the  missionary,  “who  told  you  to  work; 
I  thought  you  were  above  working  ?” 

“I  cannot  wash  and  sew  like  my  white  sisters  in  England,’’ 
she  answered.  “I  wish  I  could ;  but  I  can  prune  and  hoe, 
and  the  plantains  which  feed  us  require  both.  It  is  my  duty 
to  assist  in  feeding  this  great  family.” 

It  was  a  sad  night  for  her  and  all  the  Christians  when 
Philipo  died.  His  brothers  came  to  take  away  the  corpse, 
but  the  missionary  and  Sarah  refused,  saying  that  because 
they  were  Christians  and  Jesus  was  their  elder  brother,  they 
were  more  closely  related  to  Philipo  than  his  natural  broth¬ 
ers.  When  his  heathen  relatives  saw  the  fine  grave,  the 
beautiful  bark  cloth,  and  the  clean  white  linen,  they  said, 
“You  have  buried  him  a  chief;  we  also  wish  to  be  your 
brothers.” 

So  the  number  of  Waganda  Christians  grew.  Some  were 
slaves,  some  were  chiefs,  some  were  officers  of  the  king’s  house¬ 
hold,  and  several  were  the  king’s  own  daughters.  By  Oc¬ 
tober,  1884,  eighty-eight  Waganda  had  been  baptized.  Black 
men,  women,  and  children  were  being  born  again  with  new 
hearts  pure  and  white. 


LESSON  48 

MACKAY'S  QUEER  NEW  NAME 
Read  Matthew  25  : 3 1-40  ;  Acts  26  : 2 4-2  9 

“Any  amount  of  mere  preaching/7  wrote  Mr.  Mackay, 
“would  never  set  these  lazy  fellows  to  work;  and  if  only  the 
slaves  work,  what  better  are  matters  than  before?  I  have 
made  work  so  prominent  a  part  of  my  teaching  that  I  am 
called  Muzungu-iva  Kazi  [white  man  of  work].  I  tell  them 
that  God  made  men  with  only  one  stomach,  but  with  two 
hands,  implying  they  should  work  twice  as  much  as  they 
eat.  But  most  of  them  are  all  stomach  and  no  hands !  That 
I  work  with  my  hands  should  be  a  healthful  lesson.” 

A  good  sized  farm  of  perhaps  twenty  acres  was  put  at  the 
disposal  of  the  missionaries — ten  times  as  much  as  the  king 
had  given  them  at  first.  To  raise  all  the  vegetables,  fruit, 
and  stock  they  might  need  for  food  became  their  ambition. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  cut  down  the  trees  and  underbrush 
and  to  break  up  the  soil,  so  as  to  prepare  these  acres  of  wild 
land  for  cultivation.  The  natives  never  having  been  used 
to  the  idea  of  working  for  wages,  all  manual  work  being  done 
by  slaves,  it  was  difficult  to  get  men  and  women  to  help  in 
this  undertaking.  After  months  of  patient  labor  fifteen  hun¬ 
dred  plantain  trees  were  growing  on  the  land.  Splendid 
crops  of  maize,  millet,  wheat,  beans,  peas,  tomatoes,  and 
sweet  potatoes  were  being  gathered.  There  was  a  fair  herd 
of  cattle,  together  with  goats  and  chickens — enough  to  supply 
them  with  meat.  Part  of  the  coffee  they  used  was  raised  on 
their  own  trees,  and  the  cotton  they  wove  into  cloth  was  of 
their  own  planting.  From  their  own  wheat  crops  they  made 
flour  and  baked  bread  in  a  brick  oven  devised  by  Mr.  Mac- 
kay.  Plantain  rinds  were  burned  to  make  lye  for  soap-mak¬ 
ing.  They  even  went  so  far  as  to  make  sugar  and  molasses 
from  Uganda  sugar-cane.  All  these  new  forms  of  labor  they 
did  themselves  or  taught  the  natives  by  patient  example. 

To  all  the  tasks  of  various  kinds  involved  in  farming  was 

232 


MACKAY’S  QUEER  NEW  NAME 


233 


added  that  of  building  a  new  home  for  the  missionaries.  For 
two  years  the  white  men  had  lived  in  a  hut  of  native  build. 
Oftentimes  the  rain  would  drip  through  the  grass  roof,  and 
on  the  moist  mud  floors  weeds  and  grass  would  insist  on  grow¬ 
ing.  The  lower  parts  of  the  walls,  being  shaded  by  the  roof 
and  soaked  by  the  rains,  soon  rotted.  _  Because  such  conditions 
were  so  unhealthful,  Mr.  Mackay  determined  to  build  the 
best  sort  of  house  he  could  with  the  materials  at  his  disposal. 

Because  of  the  rumors  spread  by  the  Arabs  that  brick 
houses  would  be  used  as  forts,  he  did  not  dare  build  of  that 
material.  So  the  frame  he  made  of  wild  palm,  the  only  wood 
in  Uganda  which  can  resist  the  ravages  of  the  white  ants. 
Between  the  beams  the  walls  were  filled  in  with  stones  and  red 
clay  and  plastered  over,  both  inside  and  outside,  with  plaster. 
To  protect  these  walls  from  rain  the  heavily  thatched  roof 
was  made  to  extend  some  feet  beyond  them  and  was  sup¬ 
ported  by  substantial  pillars.  The  two  stories  within  and 
the  stairway  connecting  them  seemed  very  marvelous  to  the 
ignorant  Waganda,  who  had  never  before  seen  one  house  built 
on  top  of  another.  The  wooden  floor  and  the  lattice-work 
for  windows  did  much  toward  making  the  house  comfortable 
and  wholesome  as  a  home  for  the  white  men. 

With  all  the  delays  caused  by  inefficient  and  lazy  work¬ 
men,  by  Mr.  Mackay ’s  occasional  attacks  of  fever,  and  by  the 
dozen  and  one  other  hindrances  that  may  not  be  named,  a  full 
year  passed  before  the  new  home  was  completed.  The  fame 
of  this  wonderful  house  and  farm  spread  even  beyond 
Uganda,  and  here  and  there  some  enterprising  man  copied 
this  or  that  suggestion  from  the  white  man’s  way  of  living. 

For  three,  years  the  missionaries  had  been  drinking  the 
same  kind  of  water  as  was  used  by  the  natives.  Uot  a  well  or 
a  pump  had  ever  been  seen  in  the  land.  The  water  which 
naturally  drained  into  the  hollow  swamps  between  the  hills, 
carrying  filth  with  it,  wras  the  only  supply  the  Waganda 
knew.  After  a  fearful  plague  had  swept  over  the  land,  and 
the  white  men  themselves  had  been  weakened  by  repeated 
attacks  of  fever,  they  decided  to  dig  a  well  of  their  owii, 
where  they  could  find  pure  fresh  water. 

“When  we  got  too  far  down  to  throw  up  the  earth  with  a 
shovel,”  says  Mr.  Mackay,  “I  set  up  a  trestle  of  strong  trees ; 


234 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


and  with  rope  and  pulley  and  bucket,  much  to  the  astonish¬ 
ment  of  all  the  natives,  we  hoisted  np  the  clay,  till  we  reached 
water  just  at  the  depth  I  predicted.  The  Waganda  had  never 
seen  a  deep  well  before,  and  would  not  believe  that  water 
could  be  had  on  a  hillside  until  they  saw  the  liquid  itself.  It 
took  more  than  a  week  to  sink  the  well ;  but  when  I  afterward 
repaired  a  battered  pump  which  I  had  bought  in  London,  and 
they  saw  a  copious  stream  ascend  twenty  feet  high,  their 
wonder  and  amazement  knew  no  bounds. 

“  ‘Mahay  lub'are!  Mahay  lubare  data !’  was  cried  by  all 
[Mackay  is  the  great  spirit,  he  is  truly  the  great  spirit]. 
But  I  told  them  that  there  was  only  one  great  Spirit,  that  is, 
God,  and  I  was  only  a  man  like  themselves.  To  each  com¬ 
pany  that  came  near  I  explained  the  action  of  the  pump,  some 
understanding  best  when  I  said  that  it  was  only  a  sort  of  ele¬ 
phant’s  trunk  made  of  copper.  To  others  I  explained  that  it 
was  only  a  beer-drinking  tube  on  a  large  scale,  with  a  tongue 
of  iron  that  sucked  up  the  water,  as  their  tongues  sucked  up 
the  beer  from  their  gourds. 

“  ‘0,  the  Bazungu,  the  Bazungu !  they  are  the  men;  they 
can  do  everything ;  the  Arabs  and  coast  men  know  nothing  at 
all.’ 

“There  must  remain  nothing  for  white  men  to  know — 
they  know  everything!”  said  Mutesa  in  his  astonishment. 

“We  know  yet  only  the  beginning  of  things.  Every  year 
we  make  advances  in  knowledge,”  Mackay  replied. 

“Can  Waganda  ever  become  clever  like  the  Bazungu?” 

“Yes,  and  yet  even  more  clever.” 

The  king  laughed  and  said,  “I  don’t  believe  it.”  Of  course 
the  chiefs  laughed  too,  as  they  did  whenever  the  king  laughed. 

The  fame  of  the  “white  man  of  work”  reached  its  climax 
when  he  successfully  served  as  undertaker  for  the  king’s 
mother,  Eamasole.  The  funeral  was  patterned  partly  after 
the  white  man’s  and  partly  after  the  black  man’s  way  of 
burying  the  dead.  The  white  man  suggested  three  coffins, 
the  inner  of  wood,  the  next  of  copper,  and  the  third  of  wood 
covered  with  cloth.  But  the  dimensions — these  were  of  the 
black  man’s  choosing.  The  bigger  the  grave,  the  greater  the  « 
honor  shown  to  the  dead  queen !  All  the  copper  in  the  king’s 
stores  was  sent  down  to  the  mission.  “Eine  large  trays  of 


MACKAY’S  QUEER  NEW  NAME 


235 


Egyptian  workmanship,  copper  drums,  copper  cans,  and 
copper  pots  and  plates75  were  all  melted,  but  barely  supplied 
enough  for  the  lid  of  the  copper  coffin.  The  outside  wooden 
coffin,  when  put  together,  looked  like  a  small  house.  A  thou¬ 
sand  men  were  used  to  carry  the  various  parts  of  the  three 
coffins  to  the  huge  hut  under  which  had  been  dug  the  huge 
grave.  For  “the  white  man  of  work77  to  serve  as  undertaker 
for  the  dead  queen  had  meant  toiling  all  day,  and  frequently 
most  of  the  night,  for  thirty  days. 

When  the  day  of  the  burial  came,  into  the  grave,  outside, 
and  between  the  several  coffins,  there  were  thrown  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  yards  of  bark  cloth  and  calico,  amounting, 
it  is  said,  to  even  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  worth.  A 
more  splendid  burial  had  never  before  been  given  to  royalty 
in  Uganda.  This  is,  in  brief,  the  story  of  the  coffin ;  but  the 
sermon  he  preached  through  its  making  was  yet  to  come. 

“It  was  at  morning  baraza  ”  writes  Mackay.  “Strangers 
were  called  forward  to  describe  burial  customs  in  various 
parts  of  Africa  and  Arabia.  Some  told  of  burying  scores  of 
living  virgins  with  a  dead  king;  others  told  of  how  human 
lives  were  offered  as  sacrifices  on  like  occasions ;  while  others 
told  of  the  pomp  and  ceremony  displayed  at  funerals. 

“Turning  to  me,  the  king  asked :  ‘Tell  me  how  they  bury  in 
your  country?  Do  they  do  as  I  did  in  burying  Yamasole? 
Did  you  see  any  human  sacrifices  then  V 

“Masudi  (an  Arab)  began  to  describe  to  me  how  when 
Mutesa’s  grandfather  died  his  father  had  thousands  slaugh¬ 
tered  at  the  grave. 

“  ‘Don’t  mention  such  things,7  I  said  to  Masudi,  with  such 
a  gesture  of  horror  that  he  became  quiet  at  once ;  ‘they  are  too 
cruel  to  be  spoken  about  before  the  Mutesa  of  to-day.  You, 
Mutesa,  far  surpass  anyone,  not  only  in  Africa,  or  in  Arabia, 
or  in  India,  but  even  in  Europe  itself.  I  never  heard  of  so 
much  valuable  cloth  being  buried  in  a  royal  grave  as  you 
buried  with  Yamasole.7  This,  of  course,  pleased  him.  ‘But 
let  me  tell  you  that  all  that  fine  cloth  and  those  fine  coffins 
will  one  day  all  be  rotten.  It  may  take  ten  years,  or  may  be 
a  hundred  years,  or  it  may  be  a  thousand  years;  but  some 
day  all  will  be  rotten,  and  the  body  inside  will  rot,  too.  Yow 
we  know  this,  hence  in  Christian  countries  we  say  that  it 


236 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


matters  little  in  what  way  the  body  is  buried,  but  it  matters 
everything  what  becomes  of  the  sonl.  Look  at  these  two  bead 
chiefs  of  yonrs  sitting  by  yon.  The  katikiro  is  yonr  right 
hand  and  Kyambalango  is  yonr  left  hand.  They  are  both 
very  rich.  Next  to  you  they  are  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom. 
They  have  cloth  and  cattle  and  lands  and  women  and  slaves — 
very  much  of  all.  Here  they  have  much  honor,  and  when 
they  die  they  will  be  buried  with  much  honor,  but  yet  their 
bodies  will  one  day  rot. 

“  ‘Now  let  me  have  only  an  old  bark  cloth,  and  nothing 
more  of  this  world’s  *  riches,  and  I  would  not  exchange  my 
place  for  all  the  wealth  and  all  the  greatness  of  both  the  ka¬ 
tikiro  and  Kyambalango.  All  their  greatness  will  pass  away, 
and  their  souls  are  lost  in  the  darkness  of  belief  in  the  wizards, 
while  I  know  that  my  soul  is  saved  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God,  so  that  I  have  riches  that  never  perish,  which  they 
know  nothing  about.’ 

“The  katikiro,  evidently  struck  by  my  contempt  of  all  his 
greatness,  replied  that  Mutesa  was  a  believer  in  J esus  Christ, 
while  he  was  a  servant  of  Mutesa,  consequently  he  was  a 
Christian.  Mutesa  then  began  his  usual  excuses. 

“  ‘There  are  these  two  religions,’  he  said.  ‘When  Masudi 
reads  his  book,  the  Koran,  the  white  men  call  it  lies;  when 
the  white  men  read  their  book,  Masudi  calls  it  lies.  Which 
is  true  V 

“I  left  my  seat,  and,  going  forward  to  the  mat  on  which 
the  katikiro  was  sitting,  I  knelt  on  it,  and  in  the  most  solemn 
manner  I  said,  ‘O,  Mutesa,  my  friend,  do  not  always  repeat 
that  excuse !  When  you  and  I  stand  before  God  at  the  great 
day  of  judgment,  will  you  reply  to  Almighty  God  that  you 
did  not  know  what  to  believe  because  Masudi  told  you  one 
thing  and  Mackay  told  you  another  ?  No,  you  have  the  New 
Testament;  read  for  yourself.  •  God  will  judge  you  by  that.’  ” 

So  Mackay  pleaded  with  Mutesa.  Never  again  did  an¬ 
other  opportunity  come.  Like  Agrippa  in  the  days  of  Paul, 
this  black  king  did  not  heed  the  Christian  plea.  His  health 
grew  worse  continually.  Weak  and  suffering  intensely,  he 
was  unable  to  hold  baraza.  Two  years  after  his  mother’s 
pompous  funeral,  he,  too,  died,  and  died  a  heathen. 


LESSON  49 

THREE  BOY  HEROES  AND  ONE  BOY  TYRANT 
Read  Revelation  2:10;  Matthew  10:28;  Acts  6:7  to  7:60 

“Mwanga  has  eaten  Uganda/7  was  the  news  which  traveled 
from  mouth  to  mouth  when  Mutesa’s  successor  was  chosen. 
To  the  missionaries  this  seemed  good  news.  Mwanga  was  a 
lad  about  eighteen  years  of  age.  During  Mutesa’s  reign  he 
had  occasionally  visited  the  missionaries  and  had  learned  a 
little  of  reading. 

“If  you  should  become  king  on  your  father’s  death  how 
will  you  treat  us  ?”  Mr.  Ashe  had  once  asked  him  when  the 
boy  was  paying  a  visit  to  the  missionaries. 

“I  shall  like  you  very  much,  and  show  you  every  favor/7 
was  the  reply. 

However,  it  spoiled  Mwanga  to  be  made  king  of  Uganda. 
He  began  to  show  all  his  father’s  weaknesses  without  any 
of  his  strong  points.  The  katikiro,  along  with  certain  of  the 
chiefs,  hated  the  missionaries  exceedingly,  and  it  did  not 
take  long  for  Mwanga  to  catch  their  spirit. 

He  had  not  long  been  king  when  the  rumor  was  brought 
to  his  court  that  an  army  of  white  men  was  marching  to 
Uganda  by  way  of  Usoga,  a  country  just  east  of  Uganda. 

Now,  there  were  many  reasons  to  make  Mwanga  begin  to 
think  that  the  foreigners  who  were  coming  were  enemies.  He 
had  heard  of  fighting  on  the  part  of  the  English  in  Egypt  to 
the  north,  and  that  the  Germans  (to  him  the  same  as  the 
English)  were  fighting  in  the  region  of  Zanzibar.  He  ex¬ 
pected  them  to  march  inland.  In  addition,  he  had  been  told 
of  English  and  Germans  who  were  living  at  the  southern  end 
of  Victoria  Lake.  Now,  worst  of  all,  there  was  an  army 
of  white  men  in  Usoga.  Surely,  the  Englishmen  already 
in  Uganda  were  part  of  this  great  force  and  they  would 
unite  with  the  army  in  Usoga  and  “eat  up  the  land.”  A 
spark  was  all  that  was  needed  to  fire  these  suspicions.  This 

237 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


238 


spark  was  supplied  by  Mujasi,  captain  of  the  king’s  body¬ 
guard. 

One  day  Mujasi  noticed  a  lad,  formerly  a  follower  of  his, 
repairing  the  missionaries’  fence.  He  complained  to  the 
katikiro  that  the  white  men  were  ruining  the  country,  that 
they  paid  men  to  work  for  them,  so  that  the  chiefs  like  him¬ 
self  could  no  longer  get  workers  for  nothing.  A  few  days 
later  several  Christian  lads,  the  servants  of  a  certain  chief, 
attended  the  communion  service  on  Sabbath  at  the  mission 
instead  of  thatching  a  roof  for  the  chief.  Another  charge 
Mujasi  made  was  that  every  time  Mackay  crossed  the  lake 
he  took  hundreds  of  Waganda  with  him.  These  complaints, 
and  the  story  of  the  white  men  in  ITsoga,  prepared  the  way 
for  the  terrible  crisis  which  broke  out  a  few  days  later. 

Mr.  Mackay,  having  finished  overhauling  a  new  mission 
boat,  gained  permission  from  the  king  and  the  katikiro  to  go 
to  Msulala,  at  the  southern  end  of  the  lake,  in  order  to  take 
letters  for  home  friends  to  a  place  where  they  would  be 
carried  on  to  the  coast.  About  ten  o’clock  the  next  morning 
the  party  started  on  the  twelve-mile  walk  to  the  port.  While 
on  their  way  a  rumor  reached  them  that  Mujasi  was  out 
with  a  large  army.  As  they  walked  along,  every  now  and 
then  they  met  companies  of  men,  armed  with  spears,  hurry¬ 
ing  past  them.  Recognizing  one  of  the  men,  Mr.  Mackay 
asked  him  where  the  soldiers  were  going.  He  looked  a  little 
confused,  but  replied  that  they  had  been  ordered  by  Mujasi 
to  capture  some  of  the  king’s  women  who  had  run  away. 
The  company  walked  on  until  they  were  within  a  couple  of 
miles  of  the  lake.  They  were  just  entering  a  bit  of  scrubby 
forest  when  a  force  of  several  hundred  men,  headed  by  Mujasi 
himself,  sprang  upon  them.  Armed  with  guns,  spears,  and 
shields,  they  shouted,  “Go  back !  go  back !” 

“We  are  the  king’s  friends,  we  have  received  the  king’s 
leave.  How  do  you  dare  to  insult  the  king’s  guests  ?”  the 
missionaries  asked  as  they  tried  to  proceed.  At  this  the 
crowd  rushed  upon  them,  snatching  from  them  their  walking 
sticks,  their  only  weapons,  and  jostling  them  about  in  every 
direction.  Mackay  and  Ashe  did  not  attempt  to  fight,  but 
calmly  sat  down  by  the  side  of  the  path.  Again  the  crowd 
of  ' warriors  rushed  upon  them,  pulled  them  to  their  feet,  and 


THREE  BOY  HEROES  AND  ONE  BOY  TYRANT 


23$ 


pointed  the  muzzles  of  their  guns  right  at  the  white  men’s 
breasts.  The  captives,  however,  said  nothing,  but  quietly 
abandoning  the  trip  to  the  lake,  they  reversed  their  steps. 

When  they  finally  came  to  the  point  where  two  roads  met, 
one  leading  directly  to  Mengo,  Mwanga’s  new  capital,  the 
other  to  the  missionaries’  home,  five  of  the  Christian  boys 
who  were  with  them  were  bound  and  marched  off  to  the 
capital,  while  the  missionaries  were  told  to  go  back  to  their 
own  home.  It  was  now  three  o’clock  in  the  afternoon  and 
the  missionaries  had  been  walking  for  five  hours.  Wearied 
and  disappointed,  they  sat  down  to  consider  what  should  be 
done  next.  Mr.  Ashe  tells  the  story  of  the  events  that  then 
took  place : 

“We  decided  to  lose  no  time,  but  to  lay  the  whole  matter 
at  once  before  the  katikiro.  When  we  reached  his  inclosure, 
we  were  bidden  to  wait.  Ho  one  dared  to  announce  our 
presence  to  the  katikiro,  as  Mujasi  was  having  a  private  in¬ 
terview  with  him,  reporting  the  late  encounter.  After  wait¬ 
ing  some  time  we  were  admitted  to  the  house.  Mackay 
stated  our  case  and  asked  why  we  had  been  so  badly  treated.” 

To  the  surprise  of  the  missionaries,  the  katikiro  merely 
smiled  and  said  that  Mujasi  had  turned  them  back  because 
he  found  them  taking  Waganda  out  of  the  country.  Mackay 
assured  him  that  nothing  of  the  kind  had  been  done. 

“O,  yes,  Mujasi  has  caught  five,”  insisted  the  katikiro. 

“You  are  always  taking  away  our  people  and  returning 
with  hosts  of  white  men  and  hiding  them  in  Usoga  with  the 
intention  of  eating  up  our  country,”  he  cried. 

Suddenly,  with  flashing  eyes,  he  turned  to  Mujasi  and 
said:  “To-morrow  morning  take  your  army  and  tie  up 
Philipo  and  this  other  man,  Mackay,  and  drive  them  back 
to  the  country  from  which  they  came.” 

Mr.  Ashe  says:  “With  a  cry  of  triumph  from  Mujasi’s 
soldiers  we  were  hustled  and  dragged  from  the  great  man’s 
presence,  a  dangerous  and  angry  mob  momentarily  growing 
thicker  about  us.  Soon  they  were  actually  quarreling  for  our 
clothes.  ‘Mine  shall  be  his  coat,’  shrieked  one;  ‘Mine  his 
trousers  f  ‘Ho,  mine !’  and  there  was  a  scuffle  to  get  nearer  the 
clothing  they  coveted.  However,  the  katikiro  did  not  wish 
matters  to  go‘  quite  so  far,  aud  sent  his  head  executioners  to 


240 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  DEADER 


warn  off  the  vulture  soldiers.  The  order  was  instantly 
obeyed,  and  dazed  and  amazed  we  found  ourselves  alone.” 

In  the  quiet  of  their  home  the  missionaries  knelt  and  poured 
out  their  hearts  in  prayer  to  the  heavenly  Father.  They 
then  prepared  six  loads  of  cloth  and  sent  them  to  the  king, 
six  more  to  the  katikiro,  and  one  to  Mujasi.  The  katikiro 
graciously  accepted  his  gift,  sending  hack  word  that  again 
they  would  be  brothers.  Since  the  palace  gates  were  closed 
for  the  night,  the  king’s  gift  was  returned  with  the  message 
that  the  king  would  receive  it  in  the  morning.  Mujasi,  too, 
accepted  his  load ;  but  sent  word  that  he  was  collecting  a  force 
to  rob  them  in  the  morning  and  burn  their  house ;  but  seeing 
they  had  sent  presents  to  the  king  and  katikiro  also,  he  would 
await  further  orders. 

The  missionaries  urged  all  their  Waganda  servants  and 
pupils  who  stayed  on  their  premises  to  flee  for  their  lives. 
One  boy,  however,  Seruwanga  by  name,  would  not  go.  Mr. 
Ashe,  finding  him,  asked  him  why  he  lingered  when  in  such 
danger.  “I  am  going,  my  friend,”  he  answered ;  but,  alas,  it 
was  too  late.  That  evening  he,  too,  was  captured.  The  next 
day  Mujasi  came  and  searched  the  house  for  more  Waganda 
Christians,  but  none  were  found. 

For  some  reason  all  but  three  of  the  boys  captured  the 
day  before  were  released ;  but  in  the  afternoon  the  report 
reached  the  missionaries  that  Mujasi  was  going  to  burn  to 
death  the  three  who  were  still  bound.  Hone  can  express  the 
grief  the  missionaries  felt.  They  loved  the  boys  as  they 
would  have  loved  their  owm  children.  One  of  them  was  Seru¬ 
wanga.  The  second,  Kakumba,  for  a  long  time  had  lived 
in  the  missionaries’  household.  The  third,'  Lugalama,  the 
youngest  of  all,  was  a  handsome  young  boy  of  twelve,  who, 
some  years  before,  had  been  carried  away  from  his  home  as 
a  captive  in  war.  Flaving  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Sebwato, 
a  Christian  chief,  he  was  finally  given  his  freedom  and  sent 
to  Mr.  Ashe  to  be  cared  for.  The  boy  became  a  true  friend 
of  the  missionary  and  a  general  favorite  about  the  grounds. 

These  three  boys,  the  oldest  fifteen  and  the  youngest  twelve, 
were  to  be  burned  to  death  by  the  savage  Mujasi  merely  for 
the  crime  of  having  lived  with  the  white  men.  All  the  efforts 
of  the  missionaries  to  save  their  boys  were  in  vain. 


THREE  BOY  HEROES  AND  ONE  BOY  TYRANT 


241 


The  sorrowful  story  was  afterward  told  to  Mr.  Ashe  by 
Kidza,  a  Christian  who,  as  Mujasi7s  guide,  had  witnessed  the 
cruel  scene.  This  is  the  account  as  Mr.  Ashe  gives  it: 

“Lugalama  and  Kakumba,  when  first  arrested,  were  taken 
into  a  house  and  Kakumba  was  beaten.  They  had  compas¬ 
sion  on  Lugalama  and  gave  him  some  food.  Hext  day  their 
sentence  was  pronounced,  Mujasi  being  the  chief  accuser. 

“So  the  three  boys,  Seruwanga,  Kakumba,  and  Lugalama, 
were  led  away  to  death,  a  mocking  crowd  following  them. 

“  ‘O,  you  know  Isa  Masiya  [Jesus  Christ]/  said  Mujasi. 
‘You  know  how  to  read.7  ‘You  believe  you  will  rise  from  the 
dead?7  ‘Well,  I  shall  burn  you  and  see  whether  it  be  so.7 

“These  were  some  of  the  mocking  taunts  which  they  en¬ 
dured,  and  loud  was  the  laughter  which  greeted  such  sallies. 
But  the  young  Christians,  as  some  reported,  answered  boldly 
and  faithfully.  Seruwanga  was  a  daring  fellow,  and  I  can 
well  believe  that  when  Mujasi  mocked  he  would  sing  a  song 
they  often  sang  at  the  mission,  ‘Killa  siku  tuusifu  [“Daily, 
daily  sing  the  praises77].  Kakumba,  too,  had  come  to  the 
missionaries  when  all  others  were  afraid,  and  perhaps  his 
voice  joined  in  the  song.  There  were  none  who  dared  to  beat 
upon  their  breasts  and  show  the  sorrow  that  they  felt,  though 
there  were  many  sympathizing  friend  who  followed. 

“The  mob,  carrying  gourds  full  of  banana-cider,  found 
their  way  toward  the  borders  of  a  dismal  swamp.  Here  they 
halted.  Some  brought  fire-wood,  others  made  a  rough  frame¬ 
work,  under  wTkich  the  fuel  was  heaped.  Then  the  prisoners 
were  seized  and  a  scene  of  sickening  cruelty  was  enacted. 

“Kidza  stood  sadly  watching  the  sorrowful  scene,  wonder¬ 
ing  perhaps  whether  his  turn  might  be  next,  when  Mujasi, 
drunken  with  blood,  came  to  him.  ‘Ah,  you  are  here !  I 
will  burn  you  too  and  your  household.  I  know  you  are  a 
follower  of  Isa  [Jesus].7  ‘Yes,  I  am,7  said  Kidza,  ‘and  I  am 
not  ashamed  of  it!7  Mujasi  then  left  him.77 

“What  shall  I  say  of  that  day  of  waiting,  hoping,  praying, 
fearing — praying  not  vainly,  though  at  the  very  time  the 
awful  deed  was  being  done? 

“That  was  a  day  when  the  wrongs  of  Africa  came  home  to 
me  and  burned  themselves  deep  into  my  very  soul — that  day 
when  our  three  boy  heroes  fell  asleep,  January  31,  18 85. 77 


LESSON  50 

STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS  WITH  COURAGE 
Read  Hebrews  11:13  to  12:2;  1  John  3:16 

After  the  death  of  the  three  Christian  boys  Mujasi  pre¬ 
sented  to  the  king  and  katikiro  a  long  list  of  those  who  he 
thought  should  be  killed ;  but,  surprised  at  seeing  the  names 
of  certain  prominent  officers  among  the  rest,  the  katikiro 
cried,  “What,  will  you  kill  chiefs,  too?’7  and  Mujasi  was 
thereupon  compelled  to  cease  his  troubling. 

No  readers  being  arrested  for  some  months,  the  Christians, 
and  pupils  who  were  not  Christians  as  yet,  gradually  lost 
their  fear  and  frequently  the  schoolroom  and  the  new  chapel 
were  crowded  to  their  utmost. 

Yet  only  a  few  months  later,  or  by  the  close  of  1885, 
Mwanga  showed  himself  a  very  different  sort  of  king.  Again 
reports  came  that  an  enemy  was  entering  Uganda  through 
the  land  of  Usoga.  The  fact  was  that  the  white  general 
was  really  Bishop  Hannington,  newly  dliosen  bishop  for 
Central  and  Eastern  Africa.  He  had  taken  what  seemed  to 
him  the  shortest  and  easiest  road  from  the  coast.  The 
missionaries  in  Uganda  had  written  him  a  letter,  warning 
him  of  the  danger,  but  he  had  never  received  it. 

One  day  a  page  of  the  king  secretly  told  the  missionaries 
that  Mwanga  had  sent  an  order  to  kill  the  bishop  and  all  his 
men.  They  hurried  to  the  court  to  plead  that  messengers  be 
sent  to  cancel  the  order ;  but  Mwanga  day  after  day  refused 
to  see  them  until  it  was  too  late,  and  a'  heathenish  crime  was 
committed  at  Uganda’s  “back  door.” 

Although  the  missionaries  knew  it  not,  day  after  day  the 
king  and  chiefs  assembled  to  discuss  the  question  whether 
or  not  Mr.  Ashe,  Mr.  O’Flaherty,  and  Air.  Alackay  should 
be  killed.  At  last  the  dread  decision  was  made;  Alwanga’s 
word  was  given.  The  three  Englishmen  must  die. 

The  king’s  chief  storekeeper,  being  a  Christian,  quietly  sent 
word  to  the  missionaries,  suggesting  that  they  send  a  present 

242 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS  WITH  COURAGE 


243 


to  the  king.  One  of  Mwanga’s  sisters,  a  Christian,  also  sent 
word  warning  them  that  if  ever  they  needed  to  gain  the  good 
will  of  Mwanga  it  was  then. 

So  the  missionaries  sent  valuable  presents  to  the  king,  the 
katikiro,  and  one  of  the  most  important  chiefs.  The  next 
morning  pages  came  to  the  mission  with  the  command  from 
the  king  for  Mackay  to  go  at  once  to  the  palace.  What  did 
it  mean  ?  The  missionaries  knelt  to  pray.  Then  manfully 
Mr.  Ashe  and  Mr.  Mackay  went  before  the  king. 

The  conversation  opened  by  Mwanga’s  saying,  “What  is 
the  meaning  of  the  present  you  sent  me  V 9 

“For  friendship.  We  thought  you  were  angry  with  us, 
because  when  we  came  to  see  you,  you  refused  to  see  us,” 
was  Mackay’ s  reply. 

His  words  were  made  the  occasion  of  long  continued  jeer¬ 
ing  and  mocking,  until  Mackay  quietly  asked,  “Have  we 
done  wrong  to  give  the  king  a  present  ?”  It  was  a  telling 
question  and  again  they  were  silent. 

Then  Mr.  Ashe  spoke:  “You  all  know  why  we  sent  it.  We 
want  to  hear  about  our  brother,  meaning  Bishop  Hanning- 
ton.” 

“Who  told  you  about  your  brother  ?”  everyone  cried. 

“Does  not  all  Uganda  know  it?” 

“O,  do  all  Uganda  go  to  your  place  ?” 

Then  the  king,  turning  to  one  of  the  chiefs,  said,  “Ques¬ 
tion  them  exceedingly.” 

So  the  two  men  were  mercilessly  plied  with  questions. 
The  king  wanted  the  names  of  the  men  who  had  told  them  of 
the  plot.  The  missionaries  refused  to  give  any  names.  The 
chiefs  grew  angry.  The  king  called  the  white  men  ubag- 
wagwa  ”  the  most  insulting  name  in  the  Luganda  language. 

After  more  than  two  hours  of  mocking  and  jeering, 
Mwanga  made  the  threat  that  he  would  arrest  and  kill  botli 
the  white  men  and  the  Waganda  “readers”  if  any  of  the 
latter  were  found  on  their  premises. 

Then  suddenly  he  called  an  attendant  and  cried,  “Take 
these  white  men  and  give  them  two  cows  to  quiet  their  minds,” 
and  with  a  wave  of  his  hand  he  dismissed  the  court.  Mr. 
Mackay  and  Mr.  Ashe  went  to  their  home  thankful  to  God. 

That  very  night,  regardless  of  Mwanga’s  threat,  word 


244 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


came  to  the  missionaries  from  a  group  of  Christians  gathered 
in  the  home  of  Hua,  the  king’s  head  blacksmith,  saying  that 
five  persons  wanted  to  he  baptized,  one  of  them  the  admiral 
of  the  king’s  fleet.  “So  it  is,  and  ever  will  be,”  wrote  Mr. 
Mackay,  “some  will  press  into  the  kingdom  in  times  of  the 
greatest  trial.” 

For  about  six  months  there  was  a  lull  in  the  storm.  Then 
a  number  of  events,  each  small  in  itself,  served  again  to  stir 
up  Mwanga’s  ill  temper  until  all  the  evil  of  the  boy  tyrant’s 
nature  seemed  to  break  loose  in  a  furious  passion  for  murder. 
His  straw-built  hut,  in  which  he  kept  his  stores  of  gun¬ 
powder,  caught  fire,  and  a  high  wind  carried  the  masses  of 
blazing  grass  hither  and  yon  among  the  other  royal  houses  of 
the  inclosure  until  his  entire  palace  grounds  had  become  a 
heap  of  ashes.  He  fled  to  the  house  of  the  katikiro,  only  to 
have  it  shortly  struck  by  lightning.  Mwanga,  crazed  with 
fear,  thought  that  the  god  of  lightning  was  his  enemy  and 
that  he  had  been  bewitched  by  the  white  men. 

May  26,  1886,  was  bright  of  sky,  but  dark  of  deed.  Mr. 
Ashe,  with  a  company  of  “readers”  about  him,  was  seated 
on  the  porch  at  the  back  of  the  mission  house.  They  had 
just  been  singing  when  Mackay  suddenly  appeared. 

“At  last  it  is  really  true,”  he  said.  “I  have  just  heard  that 
Mwanga  has  given  orders  to  seize  all  the  Christians.” 

“Escape  quickly  lest  they  search  our  place,”  said  Mr.  Ashe 
to  the  boys,  and  skipping  through  a  hole  in  the  back  fence, 
the  pupils  soon  disappeared.  Scarcely  had  they  gone  when 
an  officer  of  the  king  arrived  with  a  company  of  armed  men 
in  search  for  “readers,”  but  none  were  found. 

One  of  the  Mwanga’s  own  sisters  had  been  bold  enough  to 
burn  up  her  magic  charms  and  ancestral  relics.  “The  rebel¬ 
lion  is  spreading  even  into  my  own  household,”  thought 
Mwanga.  “I  must  act  quickly.”  Soon  it  was  reported 
seventy  of  the  leading  Christians  were  imprisoned. 

Two  Christian  young  men,  one  Apolo  Kagwa  by  name, 
were  called  into  the  king’s  presence.  In  a  fit  of  madness 
Mwanga  himself  attacked  one  of  them,  gashing  his  body 
fearfully  with  a  spear,  the  suffering  man  then  being  hurried 
off  to  the  executioner. 

Turning  to  Kagwa,  Mwanga  cried,  “Are  you  a  reader?” 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS  WITH  COURAGE 


245 


“I  read,  my  lord/’  was  the  heroic  reply. 

“Then  I’ll  teach  you  to  read!”  and  thus  shouting,  the 
furious  king,  with  spear  in  hand,  wounded  and  bruised  the 
body  of  the  faithful  Christian.  Yet  Kagwa’s  life  was  spared. 

While  “readers”  were  being  hunted  like  wild  beasts,  many 
of  them  fled  to  distant  provinces.  Some  refused  to  hide,  lest 
their  enemies  might  accuse  them  of  being  cowards.  One 
such  was  Roberto,  who  had  been  accustomed  almost  daily  to 
come  to  the  mission. 

As  Roberto,  with  a  group  of  boys  about  him,  was  one  day 
enjoying  a  quiet  prayer  meeting,  he  was  surprised  to  dis¬ 
cover  two  or  three  executioners  standing  outside  the  door 
of  his  hut.  Immediately  all  his  boys  except  one  bolted 
through  the  elephant  grass  fence.  A  gun  was  leaning  against 
the  door,  and,  seeing  this,  the  executioners  hesitated  to  enter. 

“Do  not  be  afraid  that  I  will  shoot,”  said  Roberto.  “Come 
in  and  take  me.” 

Binding  him  and  the  one  boy  with  him,  the  executioners 
dragged  the  two  before  the  king. 

“Do  you  read?”  asked  his  Majesty. 

“Yes.” 

“Take  him  and  roast  him,”  was  the  tyrant’s  fiendish  reply. 

The  boy’s  life  was  redeemed  by  friends,  who  gave  the  king 
in  return  a  woman  and  a  cow.  Roberto  was  kept  in  the 
stocks  for  a  few  days  and  then  was  led  forth  to  his  death. 

Another  who  refused  to  flee  was  Yua,  head  blacksmith  to 
the  king.  While  laboring  with  Mackay  over  the  coffin  for 
Mutesa’s  mother,  he  had  become  a  friend  of  the  white  man. 
On  hearing  of  the  arrests  he  hurried  his  wife  and  children 
and  two  or  three  Christian  boys  who  had  been  living  with 
him  off  to  a  place  of  hiding.  For  himself,  he  refused  to  flee, 
and,  of  course,  was  arrested. 

While  bound  hand  and  foot  in  prison  he  pleaded  with  the 
executioners  to  become  Christians.  Noticing  among  the 
other  prisoners  one  who  had  been  arrested  for  cattle-stealing, 
Yua  asked  the  executioner  not  to  kill  the  cattle-stealer  along 
with  the  Christians.  The  matter  was  reported  to  Mwanga, 
and  the  cattle-stealer  wras  pardoned ;  but  Yua  and  his  Chris¬ 
tian  companions  were  burned  alive. 

The  day  after  the  arrest  of  the  seventy  Christians  the 


246 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


alarming  report  reached  the  missionaries  that  their  houses 
were  to  be  plundered.  All  the  wThite  men’s  Waganda  servants 
and  boys  were  immediately  dismissed.  To  Mr.  Mackay  and 
Mr.  Ashe,  left  alone,  it  was,  indeed,  a  dark  day. 

“What  anguish  of  soul  we  have  experienced,”  wrote  Mr. 
Mackay,  “no  words  can  express.  Let  some  of  our  friends  at 
home  fancy  themselves  exchanging  places  with  us,  and  seeing 
their  friends,  with  whom  they  yesterday  talked  and  ate  and 
prayed,  to-day  ruthlessly  seized  and  hacked  to  pieces,  and 
their  members  left  lying  to  decay  by  the  roadside.” 

“Something  must  be  clone,”  they  said.  “We  must  at  least 
make  an  attempt  to  save  the  lives  of  those  who  are  impris¬ 
oned,  but  not  yet  killed.” 

Mackay  hurried  to  Mwanga’s  court.  On  being  presented 
to  the  king  he  reminded  his  Majesty  that,  for  a  piece  of  work 
the  missionary  had  previously  done,  Mwanga  had  promised 
to  give  him  anything  he  would  like. 

The  king  graciously  asked,  “What  then  do  you  want  ?” 

“I  want  the  lives  of  the  people  whom  you  have  seized  and 
not  yet  killed.” 

Mwanga  tried  to  excuse  himself  from  keeping  the  promise 
by  saying,  “But  they  are  already  all  dead.” 

“No,”  said  Mackay,  “there  are  many  still  alive.” 

“Well,  there  may  be  five  or  six  or  even  ten,”  said  Mwanga. 
“They  shall  not  be  killed.” 

But  Mwanga’s  promises  were  worthless.  Only  a  few  days 
later  thirty-two  of  the  imprisoned  Christians  were  burned 
alive.  After  the  deed  was  done  the  head  executioner  said  to 
Mwanga  that  he  had  never  before  killed  men  who  showed 
such  bravery  in  the  face  of  death. 

“In  the  fire  they  even  prayed  aloud  to  God,”  he  said. 

During  months  that  followed  the  missionaries’  headquar¬ 
ters  were  watched  by  the  executioners.  More  “readers”  were 
captured  and  killed ;  and  hundreds  went  into  hiding. 

At  three  o’clock  one  morning,  while  it  was  still  very  dark, 
Mr.  Ashe  was  awakened  by  a  low  knocking  at  his  door.  Aris¬ 
ing  and  lighting  his  lamp,  he  recognized  almost  half  a  dozen 
Christian  men  standing  in  front  of  the  house,  and  he  invited 
them  in.  One  of  them,  Samweli  by  name,  had  come  to  ask 
advice.  Being  away  in  a  distant  province,  gathering  tribute 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS  WITH  COURAGE 


247 


for  the  king,  lie  had  thus  far  escaped  the  executioners.  But 
now  he  had  returned.  His  companions  had  urged  him  to 
flee,  but  he  could  not  feel  that  it  was  right  for  him  not  to 
deliver  the  tribute  of  cowry-shells  to  the  king;  yet  to  show 
himself  at  the  palace  would  mean  almost  certain  death. 
What  was  he  to  do  ? 

Mr.  Ashe’s  advice  was  soon  given.  He  said,  “The  king 
lias  not  the  heart  of  a  man,  but  of  a  wild  beast,  and  you  are 
not  bound  to  submit  yourself  to  so  vile  a  murderer.” 

They  stepped  over  to  Mr.  Mackay’s  shop  and  he,  too,  ad¬ 
vised  Samweli  to  flee.  But  the  heroic  Waganda  Christian 
was  not  satisfied.  Tor  some  time  he  sat  on  the  earthen  floor 

4 

of  the  room  looking  mudh  troubled.  Finally  he  asked  for  a 
pencil  and  paper  and  bent  over  as  if  to  write. 

“You  need  not  write ;  but  tell  me  what  you  think,”  said 
Mr.  Ashe. 

Then,  looking  up,  he  said  to  the  missionary,  “My  friend, 
I  cannot  leave  the  things  of  the  king.” 

His  companions  began  to  try  to  show  him  the  folly  of  his 
decision,  but  Mr.  Ashe  said,  “Ho,  he  is  right;  he  has  spoken 
well ;  he  must  take  the  tribute.” 

After  kneeling  together  in  prayer  they  planned  that 
Samweli  should  deliver  the  cowry-shells  to  the  appointed  chief 
very  early  in  the  morning,  and  perhaps  the  executioners 
would  not  vet  be  abroad  in  search  of  Christians.  When 
Samweli  said  good-by  to  the  missionaries  they  had  little  hope 
of  seeing  his  face  again.  How  thankful  they  were  when,  at 
nightfall,  he  appeared  once  more,  happy  because  he  had  done 
his  duty,  even  though  at  the  risk  of  life  itself. 

So  in  Uganda  the  native  Christians,  not  long  since  de¬ 
graded  heathen,  were  now  suffering  torment  and  death  rather 
than  deny  their  Lord  and  Saviour.  In  all,  about  two  hun¬ 
dred  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  converts  were  brought 
to  a  cruel  martyrdom,  and  probably  more  than  that  number 
were  made  exiles  from  their  homes. 


LESSON  51 

THE  WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

Read  Matthew  19:23-30;  20:20,  27 

Once  more  there  was  a  period  of  comparative  quiet  in 
Uganda.  Another  of  the  white  men  left  for  England.  In¬ 
deed,  Mr.  Ashe  and  Mr.  Mackay  had  both  asked  permission 
to  go,  for  perhaps  through  their  temporary  absence  the  per¬ 
secutions  of  the  Christians  might  cease. 

After  many  discussions  at  court  his  black  Majesty  finally 
consented  that  Mr.  Ashe  should  leave,  but  not  so  Mr.  Mac¬ 
kay,  for  whom  the  king  pretended  to  have  a  most  remarkable 
affection.  So  Air.  Mackay  bade  farewell  to  his  long-time 
companion,  and  for  nearly  a  year  held  the  fort  in  Uganda 
alone. 

Notwithstanding  the  possibility  of  death,  large  numbers 
of  “readers”  stole  away  to  the  white  man’s  house.  Several 
months  after  Mr.  Ashe  left,  Air.  Alackay  wrote: 

“For  a  couple  of  months  after  you  left  I  was  having  a 
regular  houseful  of  strangers  every  evening.  The  tin  of 
petroleum  arrived  in  time,  and  with  it  I  could  make  a  re¬ 
spectable  light,  so  that  the  library  became  a  night  school. 
Late,  late,  often  very  late,  we  wound  up,  and  I  was  often 
more  than  exhausted — reading,  teaching,  giving  medicine, 
and  doing  other  work.” 

In  addition  to  his  teaching  and  doctoring,  the  “white  man 
of  work”  undertook  to  construct  a  spinning-wheel  and 
weaver’s  loom  so  that  the  Waganda  might  learn  to  spin  and 
to  weave  their  own  cloth. 

Whenever  time  could  be  spared,  Alackay  labored  on  the 
translation  and  printing  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew.  In  a  few 
months  the  first  edition  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  copies  came 
from  the  press,  and  the  eager  Christians  were  able  to  read 
for  themselves  the  precious  stories  of  the  Christ. 

The  fickle  Alwanga,  however,  could  never  be  trusted,  and 

248 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 


249 


again  and  again  plots  were  laid  for  the  white  man’s  life.  In 
a  letter  written  about  this  time  Mackay  said : 

“I  have  not  the  slightest  desire  to  ‘escape,’  if  I  can  do  a 
particle  of  good  by  staying.  My  desire  is  that  the  Lord  will 
open  the  way  for  the  mission  to  be  kept  up,  not  abandoned. 
Our  ship  is  in  port,  some  twelve  miles  off,  and  possibly  I 
might  make  a  dash  for  it ;  but  what  then  ?  I  believe  I  am 
doing  right  in  quietly  going  on  with  the  work.  My  earnest 
lieart-wish  is  simply  to  cast  myself  on-  the  Master,  and  say, 
‘Thy  will  be  done !’  ” 

For  a  time  Mwanga  pretended  to  be  a  Mohammedan,  and 
ordered  all  his  pages  to  read  the  Koran.  On  the  refusal  of  a 
number  to  obey  his  orders,  Mwanga  complained  that  all 
those  who  read  with  the  white  men  were  stubborn  and  com¬ 
pelled  him  to  be  ever  killing  them,  so  that  people  would  cail 
him  a  madman !  He  threatened  to  “kill  very  many.”  But 
his  queen  mother,  although  a  heathen,  warned  him  against 
putting  his  pages  to  death ;  since,  she  said,  in  a  few  years 
they  would  be  the  chief  strength  of  his  country. 

How  that  Mackay  was  alone,  his  old  enemies,  the  Arabs, 
redoubled  their  efforts  to  drive  him  from  the  country.  Again 
and  again  they  slandered  his  character  before  Mwanga. 
When  a  letter,  written  in  Arabic,  came  from  the  English 
consul  in  Zanzibar,  they  mistranslated  it  to  the  king,  so  that 
it  read  that  the  consul  advised  Mwanga  to  drive  Mackay  out 
of  the  country  at  once.  The  king  hesitated,  not  knowing 
which  to  believe,  the  Arabs  or  Mackay.  How,  he  seemed  to 
favor  Mackay’ s  leaving;  again,  he  refused  his  permission. 

Finally  the  king  definitely  declared:  “I  will  not  have  his 
teaching  in  the  country  while  I  live.  After  I  am  dead  the 
people  may  learn  to  read.” 

Mackay  did  not  leave,  however,  until  he  gained  a  promise 
from  the  king  to  send  a  native  messenger  along  with  him  in 
the  boat,  so  that,  on  the  return  trip  of  the  ship,  another 
Englishman  might  be  brought  to  take  Mackay’s  place. 

So  one  day  in  the  summer  of  1887,  Mackay  bade  farewell 
to  his  Uganda  home,  and  to  the  great  heathen  capital  and  its 
king,  locked  up  the  mission  houses,  and  started  for  the  port. 

Good-by  gifts  were  given  back  and  forth  between  Mwanga, 
the  chiefs,  and  Mackay ;  and  the  Waganda  Christians  called 


250 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


to  have  their  last  words  with  the  white  man.  For  nine  years 
he  had  been  to  some  of  them  a  faithful  friend  and  father, 
and  it  was  hard  for  them  to  let  him  go. 

Not  long,  however,  were  the  persecuted  Waganda  Chris¬ 
tians  left  alone.  The  boat  that  carried  Mr.  Mackay  to  the 
southern  end  of  the  lake  brought  Mr.  Gordon,  a  nephew 
of  Bishop  Hannington,  to  take  his  place.  Mr.  Gordon  was 
soon  joined  by  Mr.  Walker,  and  these  two  brave  men  persist¬ 
ently  kept  the  work  moving  forward. 

Within  about  a  year’s  time  two  revolutions  occurred  in 
Uganda.  Mwanga’s  cruelties  grew  so  loathsome  to  his  sub¬ 
jects  that  even  they  arose  in  a  body  and  dethroned  him,  plac¬ 
ing  his  brother,  Kalema,  on  the  throne  in  his  stead.  Under 
the  new  monarch,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  Christians 
were  given  the  chief  offices  of  the  kingdom,  and,  for  a  while, 
“readers”  flocked  to  the  mission  like  “swarms  of  bees.”  The 
jealousy  of  the  Arabs,  however,  was  not  long  in  being  stirred. 
After  a  second  revolution,  a  new  king  was  put  on  the  throne 
and  the  important  chieftainships  given  to  Mohammedans. 

For  six  days  both  the  French  and  English  missionaries 
were  imprisoned  in  a  filthy  hut  within  the  king’s  inclosure. 
The  furious  Mohammedan  mob  robbed  the  Protestant  mis¬ 
sion  of  every  article  of  furniture,  beds,  tables,  chairs,  book¬ 
cases,  boxes,  everything.  “Every  hook  was  torn  to  hits,”  and 
every  bottle  of  medicine  was  smashed  or  emptied  of  its  con¬ 
tents.  Doors  were  wrenched  from  their  hinges  and  carried 
away,  and  the  mission  house  left  a  desolate  wreck. 

The  French  priests  and  Protestant  missionaries  were  to¬ 
gether  put  on  board  the  white  man’s  ship,  no  food,  almost  no 
clothing,  and  no  bedding  being  allowed  for  their  voyage  to 
the  southern  end  of  the  lake.  Mr.  Walker  was  even  robbed 
of  his  hat,  coat,  and  trousers  before  starting,  and  the  only 
two  books  he  had  saved,  his  New  Testament  and  prayer-book, 
were  snatched  from  him  and  thrown  into  the  lake. 

“The  captain  carried  us  on  board,”  wrote  Mr.  Gordon, 
“and  we  heard  the  voice  of  the  officer  behind  us.  He  was 
giving  us  Uganda’s  parting  message.  ‘Let  no  white  man 
come  to  Uganda  for  the  space  of  two  years.  We  do  not  want 
to  see  Mackay’s  boat  in  Uganda  waters  for  a  long  time  to 
come.  We  do  not  want  to  see  a  white  teacher  back  again  in 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 


251 


Uganda  until  we  have  converted  the  whole  of  Uganda  to  the 
Mohammedan  faith.’  ” 

While  revolutions  and  fanatical  outbursts  were  taking 
place  in  Uganda,  Mackay  was  beginning  missionary  work 
at  Usambiro,  near  the  southern  shore  of  Victoria  Lake. 

'  f 

About  seventy  miles  to  the  eastward,  a  wretched  fugitive, 
having  escaped  from  Uganda  in  a  canoe  with  perhaps  half  a 
dozen  companions,  was  the  cruel,  despised  Mwanga.  Re¬ 
gardless  of  the  unspeakable  wrongs  this  tyrant  had  com¬ 
mitted  against  him  and  against  so  many  whom  he  loved,  the 
earnest,  forgiving  missionary  now  wrote  and  offered  the 
ruined  king  a  refuge  with  him  in  Usambiro. 

“Murderer  and  persecutor  as  he  has  been,”  wrote  Mr. 
Mackay,  “I  yet  have  not  the  faintest  doubt  that  it  becomes 
us  to  do  everything  in  our  power  to  return  him  good  for  evil.” 

Some  months  later  Mwanga  fled  to  the  Catholic  mission, 
where  he  was  soon  baptized.  By  a  third  revolution  in 
L^ganda,  he  was  later  restored  to  his  throne ;  but  Mwanga 
was  as  Samson  with  his  hair  shorn.  He  became  little  more 
than  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his  chiefs. 

In  the  meantime  what  was  Mackay  doing  at  Usambiro  ? 
When  the  Waganda  Christians  were  exiled  from  their  coun¬ 
try,  some  twenty-five  of  them  fled  to  Mackay.  With  their 
assistance  he  built  a  neat  five-room  house  for  himself  and  the 
two  or  three  other  white  men  who  sometimes  were  with  him. 
Workshops,  houses  for  his  boys,  buildings  for  his  chickens, 
goats,  and  cattle,  and  a  garden  where  he  could  raise  vege¬ 
tables  were  other  results  of  their  industry. 

Even  when  driven  from  Uganda,  Mackay  did  not  cease  to 
toil  for  the  land  he  had  long  since  called  his  own.  He 
directed  his  exiled  Christians  in  the  use  of  the  printing  press, 
and  many  pages  of  Scripture  verses,  prayers,  and  hymns 
from  time  to  time  were  sent  to  Uganda. 

For  years  it  had  been  his  ambition  to  build  a  good  steam 
launch  for  the  use  of  the  missionaries  on  Victoria  Lake.  In¬ 
deed,  on  first  coming  to  Africa  he  brought  with  him  a  steam- 
boiler  and  engine,  but  he  had  never  succeeded  in  gaining 
Mutesa’s  or  Mwanga’s  permission  to  build  the  boat.  How, 
at  last,  he  was  at  work  on  the  task. 

In  August,  1889,  Stanley  passed  by  Mackay’s  mission  and 


252 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


urged  him  to  return  home  with  him ;  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  secretaries,  time  after  time,  had  invited  him  to  re¬ 
turn  to  England;  his  friends  wrote  letters  begging  him  to 
come  home  to  rest ;  but  the  faithful  Christian  soldier  refused 
until  more  men  were  sent  to  carry  on  the  work. 

At  last,  only  a  few  months  later,  ,his  summons  to  rest  came 
from  his  Lord  in  heaven.  His  only  white  companion  in 
Usambiro,  Mr.  Deekes,  was  preparing  to  return  to  England 
because  of  ill  health.  The  day  of'  his  departure  came.  He 
and  his  men  had  risen  early  and  they  were  ready  to  start 
on  the  long  march  to  the  coast. 

But  where  was  Mr.  Mackay?  Could  it  he  that  he  was 
sleeping  while  the  others  within  the  inclosure  were  up  and 
busy  helping  the  party  get  a  good  start  before  the  scorching 
sun  compelled  them  to  halt  ?  Mr.  Mackay  had  worked  hard 
the  day  before  and  perhaps  he  was  resting  unusually  soundly. 
Expecting  to  say  good-by  to  his  faithful  friend,  Mr,  Deekes 
entered  Mackay’s  room.  When  he  returned  to  his  men  he 
dismissed  them  and  ordered  all  preparations  for  the  march 
to  cease,  for  Mackay  was  lying  on  his  bed  burning  with  fever. 

During  the  whole  day  his  Waganda  boys  with  solemn, 
questioning  faces  flitted  quietly  about,  doing  their  necessary 
duties.  Ho  doctor  was  near.  Mr.  Deekes  himself  was  weak 
and  could  do  little.  The  care  of  the  sick  missionary  was 
left  largely  to  untrained  Waganda  Christians,  who  did  the 
best  they  knew  to  cool  his  fevered  brow.  During  the  next 
four  days  Mr.  Mackay,  in  his  delirium,  knew  not  the  loving 
black  nurses  who,  in  their  simple  way,  were  doing  their 
utmost  to  win  their  beloved  teacher  back  to  life.  But  his 
spirit  would  not  be  detained.  His  Master  called,  “Enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord,”  and  Alexander  Mackay  was  gone. 

“I  had  a  coffin  made  of  the  wood  he  had  cut  for  the  boat,” 
wrote  Mr.  Deekes,  “and  at  two  o’clock  in  the  afternoon  on 
Sunday  I  buried  him  by  the  side  of  the  late  Bishop  Parker. 
The  Waganda  Christians  and  the  boys  of  the  village  stood 
around  the  grave,  and  I  began  to  read  the  burial  service,  but 
broke  down  with  grief  and  weakness.  The  boys  and  Wa¬ 
ganda  Christians  sang  the  hymn,  ‘All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus’ 
name,’  in  Luganda,  and  we  returned  to  the  house,  never  to 
forget  that  day.” 


LESSON  52 
DID  IT  PAY  ? 


Alexander  Mackay  was  only  forty-one  years  of  age  when 
he  was  called  to  lay  aside  his  life-work.  When  a  young  man 
he  need  not  have  heeded  Stanley’s  call  from  Central  Africa 
and  could  have  remained  in  merry  England. 

He  might  have  continued  his  work  in  Germany,  perhaps 
coming  to  be  a  famous  engineer  or  inventor.  Having  been 
otfered  a  position  with  good  opportunities  for  promotion  in 
the  service  of  the  Imperial  East  Africa  Company,  he  might 
have  become  a  prosperous  business  man.  General  Gordon 
had  wanted  him  as  an  important  officer  in  his  army  in  Egypt. 
Had  he  accepted  the  offer  he  might  have  ended  his  life  as  one 
of  England’s  well-known  commanders.  Instead,  he  died  in 
the  prime  of  life — a  missionary  in  remote  Central  Africa. 

Fourteen  years  in  Africa  had  brought  to  Mr.  Mackay  the 
knottiest  of  problems  and  hardships  untold.  During  all, this 
time  luxury  was  far  from  him,  and  often  he  lacked  even 
what  we  regard  as  common  comforts.  No  mother  or  sister 
or  wife  was  at  his  side  to  brighten  his  simple  home.  Late  and 
early  he  toiled,  ofttimes  at  tasks  for  which  he  had  no  special 
liking.  Many  of  those  whom  he  had  so  patiently  taught  and 
whom  he  had  come  to  love  as  his  own  brothers  he  saw  sent  to 
cruel  torture  and  death.  For  months  at  a  time  he  lived 
knowing  not  when  a  wicked  monarch  might  call  for  his  life. 

His  has  not  been  the  only  promising  life  laid  down  for 
Uganda.  In  1876  seven  others  besides  Mackay  had  left  their 
homes  in  answer  to  King  Mutesa’s  plea.  During  the  years 
since  then  scores  of  other  young  men,  and  even  women,  just 
as  earnest  and  devoted  to  the  work  and  to  their  Lord  as 
Mackay,  have  started  for  the  shores  of  Victoria  Lake.  Some 
have  died  on  the  way;  others  have  lived  for  only  a  short  time 
in  the  land  of  their  choice ;  and  a  few  have  survived  to  do 
many  years  of  patient  service.  But  has  it  all  been  worth 
while  ?  Did  it  pay  ? 

% 


253 


254 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


“In  tlie  old  days,”  Mackay  tells  us,  “Mutesa  maintained 
a  force  of  some  six  thousand  men  whose  sole  work  was  to  raid 
the  surrounding  countries  in  order  to  get  slaves  to  sell  to  the 
Arabs. ”  In  1892  forty  Christian  chiefs  signed  their  names 
to  the  following  proclamation : 

“We,  the  great  chiefs  of  Uganda,  desire  to  adopt  the  good 
custom  of  freedom,  and  to  abolish  slavery  absolutely.  We 
hereby  agree  to  untie  and  to  release  completely  all  our  slaves. 
Here  are  our  names  as  chiefs.”  Thus  forty  Christian  chiefs 
without  bloodshed  accomplished  for  Uganda  what  in  the 
United  States  required  a  civil  war. 

It  was  a  letter  from  a  newspaper  correspondent,  published 
in  the  London  Telegraph,  that  first  led  Christian  teachers  to 
give  their  lives  for  Uganda.  Twenty-nine  years  later  another 
newspaper  correspondent  wrote  a  letter  from  Uganda’s  capi¬ 
tal,  and  this  was  published  in  the  London  Times  for  August 
11 ,  1904.  Unlike  Stanley,  this  second  newspaper  man  had 
in  a  few  days  traveled  by  railroad  from  the  east  coast  of 
Africa  to  Victoria  Lake.  On  board  a  beautiful  modern  lake 
steamer  he  had  sailed  to  Uganda’s  port.  He  found  a  people 
governed  by  a  Christian  king  whose  noble  prime  minister  was 
Apolo  Kagwa,  once  persecuted,  and  now  one  of  the  pillars  of 
the  Waganda  Christian  church.  He  found  a  country  under 
the  protection  of  the  English  crown,  ruled  by  just  laws,  and  a 
nation  wholly  without  slaves.  He  found  that  in  the  province 
in  which  was  the  capital  only  a  few  citizens  still  brought  their 
offerings  to  the  heathen  spirits,  and  those  few  seemed  half 
ashamed  to  be  thought  of  as  believers  in  the  wizards.  Thou¬ 
sands  of  people  were  faithful  attendants  at  the  churches 
which  had  been  built  all  over  the  country. 

Unlike  Mutesa  and  his  court,  King  Haudi  Chwa,  and  his 
advisers  were  no  longer  afraid  of  brick  and  mortar,  for  above 
the  tops  of  the  banana  trees  on  the  highest  hill  of  the  new 
capital  city  the  newspaper  man  saw  the  three  stately  spires  of 
the  new  Protestant  cathedrals  Taught  by  another  “engineer¬ 
ing  missionary,”  the  Waganda  themselves  had  both  made  the 
bricks  and  built  this  house  of  worship.  For  the  consecration 
of  this  cathedral  over  five  thousand  of  these  once  heathen  men 
and  women  gathered  at  the  capital. 

King  Daudi  Chwa,  Apolo  Kagwa,  the  prime  minister, 


DID  IT  PAY? 


255 


N 


ft nd  about  fifty  missionaries  and  native  pastors  from  all  parts 
of  the  kingdom  and  a  vast  congregation  of  thirty-five  hun¬ 
dred  within  the  cathedral  listened  reverently  through  the 
entire  services. 

“The  building  of  the  cathedral  had  involved  a  considerable 
drain  upon  the  resources  of  the  people,  and  there  still  re¬ 
mained  a  debt  of  more  than  2,000  rupees  ($650).  To  meet 
'this  was  the  object  of  the  collection  taken  up  toward  the  end 
of  the  proceedings,  and  a  very  interesting  part  of  the  cere¬ 
mony  it  proved  to  be.  Quite  a  little  army  of  men  were  em¬ 
ployed  going  to  and  fro  with  large  bags  and  cloths,  and  they 
returned  again  and  again  to  the  chancel  heavily  laden  with 
strings  of  cowry-shells,  besides  the  more  regular  coinage  in¬ 
troduced  with  British  rule.  These  were  received  by  the 
clergy  in  basin-shaped  baskets.  Many  brought  offerings  in 
kind,  and  the  English  section  of  the  congregation  could  not 
repress  their  smiles  when  the  first  chicken  was  solemnly 


carried  up  the  aisle  and  deposited  at  the  foot  of  the  table, 
followed  almost  immediately  by  a  couple  of  goats  which 
showed  a  marked  objection  to  being  dragged  back  and  re¬ 
moved  by  a  side  door.  It  then  appeared  that  gifts  were 
flowing  in,  not  only  from  the  congregation  proper,  but  from 
the  yet  greater  crowd  which  had  failed  to  gain  admission  and 
thronged  around  the  building  outside.  Load  after  load  of 
offerings  came  through  the  doors.  Others  arrived  too  late 
for  the  occasion,  and  the  amount  of  the  collection  went  on 
growing  for  days  afterward.  1  The  latest  figures  I  could 
obtain  were  as  follows:  1,613  rupees  ($538)  including 
about  90,000  shells,  and  36  bullocks  and  cows,  23  goats,  31 
fowls,  and  154  eggs.  The  result  of  this  collection  more  than 
wiped  off  the  debt  on  the  church.” 

Another  contrast  which  a  quarter  of  a  century  brought  to 
Uganda  was  witnessed  July,  1910.  The  scene  was  the  “dis¬ 
mal  swamp”  near  Mwanga’s  old  capital,  where  once  a  mur¬ 
derous  mob  had  mocked  and  burned  the  faithful  Christian 
boys.  .  Twenty-five  years  later  a  reverent  company,  repre¬ 
senting  the  seventy  thousand  Protestant  Christians,  gathered 
about  the  same  swamp  to  witness  the  unveiling  of  a  silver 
granite  cross  to  the  honor  of  those  boy  martyrs. 

For  many  years,  off  on  a  small  island  five  hundred  miles 


256 


A  MODERN  CHRISTIAN  LEADER 


east  of  Zanzibar,  the  “boy  tyrant”  who  had  ordered  their 
death  had  been  held  a  prisoner.  Only  a  few  weeks  after  the 
unveiling  of  the  monument  his  remains,  having  been  brought 
back  to  his  own  country,  were  interred  with  Christian  rites. 

In  speaking  of  the  transformation  which  a  few  short  years 
has  brought  to  Uganda,  Bishop  Tucker  writes  :  “As  I  think 
of  it  the  vision  of  one  and  another  rises  up  before  me,  living 
evidences  and  tokens  of  the  old-time  cruelty.  Here  is  a  man 
without  lips,  without  nostrils,  without  ears,  mutilated  in 
the  old  days.  Here  is  one  led  of  another,  blind,  his  eyes  put 
out  in  the  old  days  by  order  of  the  king.  And  there,  kneeling 
at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  is  one  who  can  only  take  the  con¬ 
secrated  bread  between  the  stumps  of  his  two  arms — the 
hands  cut  off  in  the  old  days  by  order  of  the  king.  Could  any 
facts  speak  more  eloquently  of  the  great  change  which  has 
come  over  Uganda  in  the'last.  fifteen  or  sixteen  years?” 

In  a  large  boys’  high  school  in  Mengo  boys  are  learning 
football,  agriculture,  and  cotton  ginning,  along  with  the  Chris¬ 
tian  religion.  In  the  girls’  high  school  the  daughter  of  Luba, 
the  murderer  of  the  bishop  at*  “Uganda’s  back  door,”  is  one 
of  the  faithful  students.  At  Mengo,  Christian  boys  have 
regular  choir  practice  in  the  cathedral  and  in  all  the  little 
churches  scattered  over  all  the  provinces  of  this  wonderful 
country,  Christian  boys  each  Sunday  morning  beat  wooden 
drums  to  call  the  people  to  worship. 

The  Waganda  themselves  have  built  their  own  churches 
and  support  their  own  pastors,  some  of  whom  have  refused 
chieftainships  in  order  to  give  themselves  to  preaching.  Yet 
more,  a  missionary  society  has  been  organized,  with  head¬ 
quarters  at  Mengo,  and  the  Waganda  are  sending  their 
own  workers  to  other  provinces  and  countries,  neighboring  on 
Uganda,  where  there  are  yet  those  who,  like  Mutesa,  were 
“born  blind”  and  want  to  be  taught  how  to  see. 

Was  it  all  worth  while?  Hid  it  pay?  Were  the  lives 
wasted  or  well  invested  which  have  made  possible  such 
changes  in  a  country  once  heathen  ?  “Whosoever,”  said 
Jesus,  “would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and  whosoever  shall 
lose  his  life  for  my  sake  and  the  gospel’s  shall  save  it.” 


V 


;  i* 


